JP Food: Irish farmhouse Chicken Casserole

From Tallaght, John Paul Kennedy is a self-taught cook with a passion for good old-fashioned home cooking.

I have posted this recipe previously, a few years back, but over the weekend as the weather was so dull, wet and grey I craved a comforting bowl of stew like goodness and I suddenly realised it had been sometime since I last made this delicious Chicken Casserole.

Full of earthy staple farmhouse vegetables, smoked bacon lardons and melt-in-the-mouth chicken, served with champ mash, this is the ultimate warming and comforting food for the soul, on days when all you need is a hug from a bowl at dinnertime.

Ingredients: (Serves 4)

4 chicken fillets (skin on – your butcher will do this for you) or 8 chicken thighs. (I use fillets as none of my family like chicken with bones in)

500ml hot chicken stock

Two tablespoons of flour

2 large carrots diced

1 onion diced

1 parsnip diced

100g smoked bacon lardons

80g frozen garden peas

1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard

Drizzle of runny honey

Tablespoon of chopped fresh thyme

1 sprig of fresh rosemary chopped

Sea salt & cracked black pepper for seasoning

2 tablespoons of rapeseed oil

Two tablespoons of Chicken Gravy granules (if required and optional)

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180° Celsius / Gas mark 4. In a large casserole dish, heat up the oil and pop the chicken in (skin side down) and cook until seared and golden brown. Remove and set aside on a plate and pop in the bacon lardons and cook until they are browned off. Add the chopped and prepared carrots, parsnip, onions and fresh herbs and cook for 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the flour and cook off for two minutes then add the stock and allow to thicken for a minute or two. Pop the browned-off chicken back into the casserole, season, clamp a lid on and pop into the oven for one hour. Remove and add the peas, stir and pop back into the oven for between 15 –30 minutes. All ovens vary but you are looking for the casserole to have thickened and the chicken to be tender and falling apart. Add the options x 2 tablespoons of chicken gravy granules if needed at this point. Serve in large bowls with champ mash (mash with softened scallion, butter, cream / milk).

Now sit back relax and enjoy. The flavours of this casserole are comforting,

Delicious and traditional and this dish is perfect to serve on those days when it is grey and wet outside, when you don’t want or have to leave the house.

This is my brother Barry’s favourite dinner and of course he came for dinner when I made it over the weekend and yes, he went back for seconds – it’s that good!

I hope you are inspired to give this recipe a go, you won’t regret it.