I made this for supper last night and it was so easy and so tasty I thought I’d share the recipe with you. My first blog for you, my subscribers since giving up the daily lockdown blog.
It makes a delicious dinner for two but you could easily double the quantities.
You will need:
A large chicken thigh per person or 3 if they are small
The rind of a lemon and the juice of half a lemon
A bunch of fresh thyme (or use dried if you don’t have fresh)
A 400g can of haricots blancs (white beans, any type would do) rinsed and drained
100g smoked lardons
One small red onion
One clove of garlic finely chopped
A teaspoon of chicken stock powder
Method:
I boned the chicken thighs but if you don’t want to (or can’t be bothered), then use them bone in and instead of cooking on the top, put them in the oven until crispy (around 40 minutes at 190° fan). You could also use chicken breasts.
Finely chop the red onion and put that in a saucepan with a little oil oil. Gently sweat for a couple of minutes before adding the smoked lardons and garlic and continue cooking until the lardons are cooked and the onion soft. Add the finely grated rind of a lemon, some fresh thyme (leaves picked off the stalks) a teaspoon of stock powder and the drained tinned beans.
Add a little water to loosen and bubble gently for about 10 minutes. You can prepare this up to this point in advance and just reheat.
For the chicken thighs, season well with salt and pepper and rub on the finely grated rind of half a lemon and some thyme leaves. If you’re cooking on the top then put them skin side down in a frying pan and cook on a lowish heat for 8-10 minutes until the skin is really crispy and brown, then flip them over, drain the pan of chicken fat, add a knob of butter and baste them for a couple of minutes. Take off the heat and leave to rest for 5 minutes.
Bring the beans back to a gentle simmer, add the juice of half a lemon and check for seasoning. Squish some of the beans against the side of the pan and stir them back in. Add a little more water if the texture is too dry. Check for seasoning.
Put the beans in a bowl and then slice the chicken thighs and place on top (or take them out of the oven and put one on top). Sprinkle a few sprigs of fresh thyme around the bowl and serve.
