Chicken and Apple Casserole Recipe

Today's recipe is for a classic Autumnal stew, combining chicken with apples in a chicken stock and cider base flavoured with herbs and smoked bacon and finished with cream. Apples work wonderfully well with pork, but they are not often paired with chicken, which is a shame.

This is a truly flavourful stew, excellent for the cold nights ahead.

If you don't want to use cider, you could substitute raw apple juice (what's called apple cider in some parts of the US).

This is quite a hearty stew and serves four hungry people quite comfortably. I like it with mashed potatoes myself, but you could use dauphinoise, roast potatoes or even chips (fries) if you prefer. My wife likes this with rice though.

Chicken and Apple Casserole Recipe

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

25g (1 oz) butter
1 tbsp vegetable oil
4 chicken quarters (with skin left on)
2 dessert (eating) apples, peeled and cut into thick wedges
2 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
1 onion, peeled and sliced
110g (1/4 lb) smoked bacon pieces
2 tbsp plain flour
300ml (1 1/4 cups) dry cider
150ml (3/5 cup) chicken stock
4 tbsp double cream
salt and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste

Method:

Melt the the butter with the oil in a frying pan. Season the chicken to taste and add the pan. Fry for about 7 minutes, turning occasionally, until nicely browned all over.

Remove the chicken pieces from the pan and set aside in a lidded casserole. Add the apple wedges on top then sprinkle over the thyme.

Add the onion to the oil remaining in the frying pan and cook for about 5 minutes, or until soft and just beginning to colour. Stir in the bacon pieces and continue to cook for 4 minutes more. Remove the onion and bacon with a slotted spoon and add to the casserole.

Scatter the flour over the juices remaining in the pan and stir to form a smooth roux. Slowly beat in the cider and the stock, stirring well to combine. Bring the mixture to a boil after each addition of liquid. Pour this sauce over the chicken in the casserole dish.

Cover with a lid then transfer to an oven pre-heated to 200ºC (400ºF, Gas Mark 6) and bake for about 60 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through (the juices should run clear when the meat is pierced with a skewer).

Stir the cream into the sauce just before serving.

Accompany with mashed potatoes and steamed cabbage.

If you would like to prepare in a slow cooker (crockpot) rather than cooking conventionally, then separately fry the chicken pieces until browned, the onions until soft and the bacon until they have released their fat (save the bacon fat). Combine the chicken, bacon, apple pieces, onions, cider and chicken stock with the thyme in a slow cooker (crockpot) and cook on low for about 9 hours. About 1 hour before serving mix the flour with the reserved bacon fat to form a smooth paste. Increase the crockpot heat to high and stir in the flour roux to thicken the stock.

Stir the cream into the sauce just before serving.

For more crockpot recipes, why not visit the Celtnet Crockpot and Slow Cooker recipes page?