With the fennel and olives, this dish says southern France to me. The sauce for this dish is fragrant and it’s good to have something like rice, noodles, or some chewy bread to soak it up.
INGREDIENTS:
4-8 Mokum carrots, roll cut into ¾ inch pieces 1 medium yellow onion, peeled and diced ¼ inch 2 fennel bulbs, stalks and fronds trimmed away and reserved 4 chicken legs, cut into thigh and drumstick 2 cloves garlic, minced ½ cup (heaping) olives, such as Nyons, Niçoise, or California dry cured (Or even Lucques or even picholine. Just not Mission.) pitted or not ½ teaspoon fennel seeds, coarsely ground salt and pepper to taste 6 sprigs fresh marjoram 1 tablespoon fennel fronds, snipped from stalks with scissors ½ cup white wine 2 cups fennel broth, chicken stock, or water, or as needed Olive oil as needed
METHOD:
Quarter the fennel through the roots, and trim away the hard core, leaving enough to hold the layers together. Cut each quarter in half along the length. Heat the oven to 425°F, and place the shelf in the center. Over medium-high, heat an oven-proof straight-sided pan that is large enough to hold the chicken in a single layer. Film the pan with oil and when the oil is hot, add the carrots, tossing to coat with the oil. Season lightly with salt and pepper and cook to color the carrots golden. Keep the carrots moving so they just color, but don’t soften. When the carrots are colored, remove them to a bowl and reserve.
Add the fennel to the pan and cook to lightly color, around 5 minutes. Lower the heat to medium. If the pan is dry, add a little oil and when hot, add the onions. Cook the onions slowly with the fennel, softening the vegetables, trying to keep the onions from coloring. When the onions have softened, add the garlic to the pan and cook until aromatic and softened a little. Season the chicken with salt and pepper.
Return the carrots to the pan and level out the vegetables. Sprinkle with the fennel seeds and fennel frond, scatter the marjoram fronds over the vegetables, and arrange the chicken pieces skin side down on the vegetables. Add the olives to the pan, pushing some of them down into the vegetables.
Turn up the heat to high, and add the wine. Boil the wine down by half, then add the fennel broth, stock, or water. Add just enough to come halfway up the chicken or a little more. Bring the liquid to a boil in the pan, and then tightly cover. Place the pan in the center of the oven and bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, pull the pan from the oven. Use tongs to turn the chicken, raising the skin above the level of the liquid. Return the pan, un-covered, to the oven. Cook for another 15-20 minutes to crisp the skin until golden.
Remove the pan from the oven, and transfer the chicken to a serving platter. Use a slotted spoon and remove the vegetables from the liquid and place around the chicken. (Place the vegetables on top of the chicken will soften the nice crunchy skin.) Bring the liquid to a boil and reduce to a sauce like consistency, and strain into a sauce boat and pass on the side.
Chef’s Notes:
There are several approaches to what to do with the sauce. You could cook the dish the before you want to serve, cooling the chicken at the point where you would turn it over to finish it. Strain the broth from the chicken and separate the chicken and vegetables. Allow the broth to cool over night and skim off the fat. Before serving, let the chicken come to room temperature and then finish in the oven. Heat the vegetables in the broth and serve separate form the chicken. Or, you could shred the chicken meat and heat it in the broth with the vegetables for a soup. For this version, I would either omit the olives, or use pitted olives and pull them from the dish and puree them and serve them as a condiment for the soup, perhaps slathering the paste on a piece of toast that is floated in the soup. You could also just skim it and reduce it to a rich sauce to put under the chicken or use it to glaze the chicken depending on how far you reduce the sauce. To make a zippier version of this dish, use green olives, more white wine, and either add half a Moroccan preserved lemon or squeeze in lemon juice with the broth. You could add a little lemon zest (no pith, though!) and coriander seed if you wanted to add more depth.
Serves: 4 or more
Source: Chef Andrew E Cohen
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