Only available on the rare occasion that you have a good glut of Morel mushrooms...
I know it rarely happens, but if you are to stumble upon a stash of Morel (and you have a couple of sneaky spots that you also know are good), you may have enough Morel to make this classic, fantastic and luxurious dish made with the freshest of Morel mushrooms.
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Chicken Thighs with Morels Recipe
Ingredients:
150g Fresh morels
200ml Chicken stock
Butter
Olive oil
6 Free Range Chicken Thighs
3 small Shallots
100ml Madeira
3 tbsp Crème fraîche
Maldon Salt
Black Pepper
From the Garden:
Small handful of Parsley
2 Bay Leaves
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Firstly, make sure your Morel are clean, using a fine brush brush off any dirt, and make sure that there are no bugs hiding out in the mushrooms!! Chop any big morel in half length ways, the smaller can remain whole.
Next in a frying pan, melt a knob of butter and add a good glug of oil (make sure that you are using a large frying pan that has a lid). Next brown the chicken pieces, this should be about 10 minutes, once cooked remove from the pan and place onto a warm plate.
Finely chop your Shallots, then in the same pan that you cooked the chicken in fry them (add a little more oil if you need to) until they begin to sweeten and soften. Next add the morels and cook for another minute or so, stirring occasionally. Turn up the heat, then add the Madeira and cook for another minute.
Return the browned chicken to the pan and pour in the chicken stock then cover and simmer for about 25 minutes. If you make sure that you get the whole stalk when you are picking the Parsley you can wrap the stalks with the Bay Leaves into a tight bundle (tie it off with string) and then add this to the mix too.
Once 25 minutes has passed, remove the chicken and mushrooms from the pan (place them on a warm plate) turn up the heat and reduce the sauce for 5-10 minutes until the sauce has thickened (make sure that the sauce doesn't catch). Remove from the heat and stir in the Crème Fraîche. Season, add the chicken and morels, then gently reheat.
For me this is best served with a simple white rice. Place a large and generous spoon of the white rice onto a warm plate then follow this up with three of the pieces of the Chicken Thigh and the Morels. Spoon on plenty of the sauce and then sprinkle with chopped Parsley leaves.
Yummy!!!!
Oh, and if you do have a glut of Morels regularly why not drop me an email and tell me where they are and we'll soon get rid of that problem for you! ;-)
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