Rolled Chicken Thigh, Red Cabbage Pie & Roast Potatoes
This juicy little ball of deliciousness here on the middle of the plate, was of course an experiment. What else? But it was one that you may well consider trying for yourselves some time. I wanted to do something a little different with chicken and though the cut I was going to prepare was a whole leg and is juicier "per se", I wanted to up the stakes. This is what I came up with... and it is easy and pretty and so much fun!
Though obviously not "sous vide" cooking, there were similarities with the chicken as far as the preparation was concerned. I wanted to make sure no juices could escape during cooking and also that the herbs and spices would infuse it with deep flavor. And wouldn'tcha know it, it worked- sigh! So grab your Ceran wrap and let's get started!
The main task at hand of course is removing the flesh from the bone. The upper part of the thigh works fine, but the lower part tends to end up being an odd collection of bits and pieces once the tendons have been removed. But keep at it, separate the 2 halves of the leg at the knee joint, cut the top of the thigh off the bone carefully and feel your way around the bone with a sharp knife. As long as you have one larger, main piece of chicken, you can use it to hold together all of the smaller pieces- but how did I do it??
I began by tearing off a sheet of cling film and pouring a tiny drizzle of olive oil onto it. I then seasoned with salt and pepper, added a little crushed garlic and then put the meat, which was simply rolled up together on top, with the smoothest area of the chicken facing down. I then folded up the edges of the cling film and twisted it shut like a "bon-bon"... easy!
So now I had the chicken ready for cooking... the only other ingredients I needed to prepare were the potatoes and the gravy. The fun thing that I did was to peel and boil or steam the potatoes- and to set the wrapped chicken bon-bon on top, so that it could steam at the same time as the potatoes... around 15 minutes works fine!
For the gravy, I prepared a little base of Marsala wine, orange juice, grated ginger and grated onion, which I whisked together with a little flour for thickening. As soon as the 15 minutes were up, I drizzled the potatoes with olive oil and at the same time unwrapped the chicken, making sure to catch all of the good juices to add to the gravy! I added the juices to the marsala mix and started it reducing whilst I drizzled the chicken with honey and popped it along with the potatoes, into the oven for 15 mins or so.
By that time, the gravy had reduced down, the potatoes were beginning to get darker- as was the chicken. I turned on the broiler for the last 2-3 minutes and soon saw to that! Gentle golden brown and simply delicious! All you need to do now is to enjoy!
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