chicken and mustard sauce

 From Jay Rayner (a variation on rabbit in mustard sauce)

a very tasty and simple way of serving chicken

Serve with crusty bread (eg ciabatta) and greens as below (or a sharp green salad)

• onion 1, large, sliced into rings
• chicken thighs 6-8, bone-in, skin-on 
• it also works with boned skinless
  
• smoked bacon lardons 200g
• olive oil 2 tbsp
• sea salt and ground black pepper
• butter a couple of knobs
• chicken stock 400ml, from a cube
• double cream 100ml
• dijon mustard 
• greens (eg a mix of spring or savoy cabbage chopped and sprouting broccoli) 
• juniper berries (crushed) (optional)
  

Heat the oven to 220C/gas mark 7. You’re going to roast these chicken thighs hot and fast.

Put the sliced onion across the bottom of an oven pan. Place the chicken thighs on top, skin side up. Chuck the lardons over and around them. Dribble on a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, season liberally with salt and pepper and add 2 good knobs of butter.

Roast the chicken thighs in the oven for around 45 minutes, and certainly until the skin is crisp. Baste them every 15 minutes or so. Cover for the first half with foil, then remove this and give them 10 minutes skin side down so the backs also crisp up. Then turn back skin side up for another 10 minutes, so the skin is really crisp.

When the thighs are done, take them out of the pan, shaking off any caramelised rings of onion or lardons. and place in a dish dish to rest in a warm place. It will not get cold and will benefit hugely from the 15 minutes or so rest it will take to make the sauce.

For the greens: pour a dessertspoon of olive oil into a lidded saucepan heat gently, add the greens and shake up until they just start to sizzle.  Add the juniper berries if used, or a good grinf of pepper.  Keep on a low heat with the lid on and occasionally give the pan a good shake, until the broccoli is just softened: about 5-7 minutes. 

For the sauce: The pan will have caramelised onion and lots of fabulous juices in it. Put it on a medium heat and pour in the stock, scraping up everything from the bottom of the pan. Let it bubble away and reduce a little for 5 minutes.

Pour in the double cream and whisk to incorporate into the stock. Let it simmer and thicken further (but don’t let it boil).

Whisk in a good tablespoon of dijon mustard. Taste. If you think it can take more, add a teaspoon at a time. Dijon mustard is a very good emulsifier and it will bring the whole thing together.

Once it has thickened enough to lightly coat the back of a wooden spoon, place the chicken thighs on warmed plates and pour the sauce in the tray over them, with the greens alongside.