This recipe–inspired by one we ate at our friends and neighbours Julie and Richard–reminds me of meals round the kitchen table at home in the fifties. It’s simple and inexpensive and would possibly stretch to a second meal–important factors for my mother, with a husband and three children to feed and limited means.
Nevertheless she could be an adventurous cook. The dishes she tasted on the trips to Europe we enjoyed as a family with Dad’s concessionary rail tickets (he worked for the LMS–London Midland and Scotland), encouraged her to experiment in a modest way. Nothing very exotic about this–except its little kick from the chillies and the olives and peppers added at a later stage; comfort food really but none the worse for that.
She would would have celebrated her ninety sixth birthday this Saturday–so this is for her too.
Ma with a Morris dancer!--on 'is way to the 'obby 'oss festival perhaps..
100gm/4 oz bacon/pancetta–diced small
3 sticks or a heart of celery– chopped small
1 medium onion–chopped small
1 clove of garlic–chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 free range chicken–cut into 8-10 pieces and washed and dried
1 sparse tablespoon flour–I use chickpea
125ml/4fl oz white wine
125ml/4fl oz of stock–I use organic vegetable stock cubes
8oz/250gms tinned tomatoes–chopped roughly
3/4 sprigs of rosemary
3 small fresh red chillies
1 red pepper–cut in thin strips
a handful of juicy black olives–stoned if you have the time
a handful of parsley–chopped
set the oven at 160c/320f
- Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large frying pan and sauté the onion, celery, bacon, and garlic gently for about 20 minutes allowing them to colour–concentrating the taste. Spoon the mixture into an oven-proof casserole.
- Season the chicken pieces and heat another spoonful of oil in the frying pan.
- Sauté them on a highish heat–turning them as they brown.
- Transfer them to the casserole.
- Tuck in the whole chillies and the rosemary sprigs and pour over the wine and the stock.
- Sprinkle over the flour and add the wine and the stock.
- Turn over the contents, cover the casserole and bring to a simmer on the stove.
- Transfer it to the oven and cook for 30 minutes.
- While this is in the oven, heat the third tablespoon of olive oil in the pan and gently sauté the strips of pepper.
- Add these to the casserole with the olives after 30 minutes and cook, uncovered, for a further 15 minutes in the oven.
- Sprinkle over the parsley and serve over brown basmati rice or quinoa
Robin Ellis 
Wow, that looks yummy!
Tasted good tonight, steven–wish you’d been here!
Hello Mereidith & Robin
This dish I can almost taste from the screen my shopping list is growing ever longer.
What a lovely lady your mum must have been, but that is mums,& what a wonderful tribute to her from her son.
Best wishes
Elaine
Thanks, Elaine.
Dear Robin,
Nice story and remembrance of your Mother.My Mother was also a very good person sadly past away 11 years ago trough Dystonia (Muscle illness) five days before her 65 th birthday, by the way she also liked the serie Poldark.
Life can be so short, so we have to enjoy every minute of it when we can.
Have a very nice evening,Chantal from Antwerp -Belgium.
Can’t wait to try this — Looks delicious:)
Thank you for this lovely blog, Robin. Recently, after reflecting upon how much I loved watching Poldark on Masterpiece Theater 30 years ago, I watched Series 1 last week….At age 60, I thoroughly enjoyed your stellar performance & character. There are no words to express how realistically wholesome & nourishing to the soul this experience was. Will be watching Series 2 next week & only wish there were Series 3 +++++.
Much love & appreciation, Karin (not to be confused with Mark Daniel’s Karin:)
Thanks Karin for the kind words–happy you feel it stands up after all these years!
Looks and sounds really tasty, will certainy give it a try but without the olives
I am going to make this tonight..looks perfectly delicious x
Let us know how it turns out, Katherine…
I’m making it right now….
I am definitely making this for our “International Lunch” on Sunday – it looks absolutely delicious!
And, may I say, even scrummier knowing that it’s a recipe connected to two of my childhood heroes, Ross Poldark and the Earl of Essex… 🙂
Wow–hope it comes through! Thanks Su.
Absolutely delicious, just tried it tonight…I always follow recipes to the letter, and just wondering when you add the tomatoes, I assumed with the wine and stock.
But thankyou sooo much
This is an excellent question, Janeclaire–thank you! I haven’t cooked this for a while. I just looked back at the recipe and you are right I left out when to add the toms and added the wine and stock twice. Oh dear–I hope things have improved. You are right though the toms should go in with the wine and stock. I shall revisit it this week!
I love this recipe, I have cooked it twice in the last week. It somewhat tastes how I would imagine provincial French food to taste like (Not having experienced any). In any case it’s easy to prepare and tastes divine. On my menu rota.
Happy to hear that, Damian–thanks.
Robin, I am so glad I stumbled across your website because this was the tastiest chicken casserole I have ever made. Thank you so much, my whole family love it and I will be cooking it again and again.
I must try it again, Lisa–thanks!
Made it! I decided to alter it a little. I didn’t add the flour. Once it had braised, I drained the liquid into a pot, added some lemon juice and capers and let it reduce. How long? Until about half, to concentrate the flavor. Then I cut in some butter to make a nice lemon caper butter sauce. Mixed all together and garnished with some fresh Marjoram. Yum. If