Slow Cooked Chicken

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken

2 Tablespoons Westgold butter

5 cinnamon sticks

2 Tablespoon honey

2 Tablepsoon lemon juice

6 baby onions

¼ leek

3 pears, quartered or 6 whole baby pears

1 cup Verjuice

Salt and pepper

25g Westgold butter, cubed

Fresh herbs for garnish

Method:

Preheat oven to 150°C. 

Using a sharp knife disjoint and cut the chicken into 10-12 pieces.  Heat a non-stick frying pan and melt 2 Tablespoon butter.  Brown the chicken on both sides then place in baking dish. 

To the same frypan add the baby onions, leeks and pears and cook for 5 mins.  Add to chicken.  To the same frypan add the verjuice, honey, lemon juice and cinnamon sticks, bring to the boil, season, then pour over the chicken.  Dot over the 25g butter. Place chicken in an oven bag, and secure the end. Bake for 1 ½ hours. 

Remove from the oven and rest for 20 mins.  Pour off the juice into the frypan and simmer to reduce the cooking liquid until reduced by half.  Check the seasoning and pour back over the chicken. Garnish with fresh herbs and serve.

Notes: there are different types of verjuice.  Some have a mild grape juice flavour (which we used for this recipe) and others have a much more acidic flavour, so taste it first and add accordingly.  If you don’t have cinnamon sticks, use ¼ - 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon.