Chicken & Shallot Agrodolce

Ginny Grant

Serves

4 - 6

Preparation

10 mins

Cook

50 mins

Ingredients

4 chicken Marylands (or use 1kg chicken drums) or 1 spatchcocked chicken
2 tablespoons oil
8 shallots, peeled and halved, root left on but trimmed
125ml white wine
2 bay leaves
¼ cup red or white wine vinegar, plus a little extra at the end if required
2 tablespoons sugar
125ml chicken stock
2 tablespoons capers
2 tablespoons toasted pinenuts
soft polenta, to serve
watercress or rocket leaves, to serve
SOFT POLENTA
500ml milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup instant polenta
25g butter
25g parmesan

VEGETARIAN/VEGAN

Try roasted root vegetables such as parsnips, potatoes, carrot or pumpkin in place of the chicken and use vegetable stock in both the sauce and the polenta. Use vegetarian parmesan or nutritional yeast. If you’d like extra protein, add some white beans to the roasting vegetables in the last 10 minutes (you may need to add a little extra stock).

Shallots are sweeter and less astringent than onions. You can use them as an onion substitute if you prefer a milder taste. It’s that mildness that makes them useful in a vinaigrette for oysters, but they respond well to roasting and become even sweeter. As they grow in clusters, you’ll often find that there will be two growing together (I count a cluster of two as two shallots, unless they are small, when I might use another). In this recipe I like to give them a little colour by frying them before roasting with the sweet-and-sour sauce and chicken.

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Instructions

1.Heat the oven to 200°C.
2.Pat dry the chicken and season with salt. In a frying pan, heat the oil and brown the chicken pieces then transfer them to a baking dish, skin-side up.
3.Add the shallots to the frying pan, cut-side down and brown for a few minutes, then carefully flip over and brown.
4.Add the shallots to the chicken.
5.Deglaze the frying pan by adding the white wine and letting it bubble up, scraping the base of the pan with a wooden spoon.
6.Let the wine bubble until reduced by half, then add the bay leaves, vinegar, sugar and chicken stock.
7.Bring up to a simmer then pour over the chicken.
8.Bake for 40 minutes or until the chicken is cooked and the sauce has reduced.
9.If you prefer a thicker sauce reduce the liquid in a frying pan until syrupy.
10.Sprinkle over the capers and pinenuts and serve with soft polenta and watercress.
11.SOFT POLENTA
12.Heat the milk with 500ml water and the salt in a saucepan until it comes to a simmer.
13.Add the polenta in a steady stream and whisk constantly for 5 minutes.
14.Add the butter and parmesan and stir well, adjusting seasoning to taste.

Recipes & food styling Ginny Grant / Photography Aaron McLean / Styling Jess Hemmings

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