Chicken Roasted in Red Wine

Chicken Roasted in Red Wine

Today is NZ Roast Day, so rock this roast recipe out and create some loving fans.

Two of our favourite things in winter. Roast chook and red wine. Normally a crisp white wine matches a chicken dish, but at the time of year, chicken goes all comfy, cosy with a good dash of fine red wine.

Our wine match here is a Selaks Pinot Noir. Makes the chicken creamy, saucy and moist with a most wonderful red wine jus.

Ingredients

4 slices streaky bacon
6-8 large free range chicken pieces, free range (eg. thighs, whole legs – bone in)
1 teaspoon freshly ground Himalayan pink salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup rice flour (or plain is fine)
2 tablespoons rice bran oil
10 whole shallots (topped, tailed and peeled)
1 cup Selaks Pinot Noir
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves (or 1 teaspoon dried thyme)
Medley of roast vegetables to serve (see below)

Method

Pre-heat your oven and a good quality, metal roasting dish to 180 degrees Celcius.

In a large sauté pan over a high heat, fry the bacon slices until crisp, then drain well, break into pieces and set aside. Leave the pan as is, to use again.

Season the chicken pieces, both sides, with salt and pepper then pat with the flour. In the pan you’ve just used for the bacon, add the chicken pieces skin-side down into the fat and brown well over a medium heat. After two minutes, turn the chicken pieces over and brown the other side to seal. To get all the chicken pieces browned, this may need to be done in a couple of batches.

Remove the warmed roasting dish from the oven and place all the now golden chicken pieces skin-side up into the roasting dish. There is no need for any additional fats or oils.

Again using the same just-used sauté pan, add the whole shallots, red wine, chicken stock and thyme. Over a low heat, stir to remove the baked on bits from the bottom of the pan. Simmer five minutes. Adjust seasonings then pour this over the chicken pieces and bake in the oven for an hour. The sauce thickens to become gravy.

Remove the roasting dish from the oven and let rest at least 5-10 minutes while you set the table and crisp up the roast vegetables (turn the oven up to 220 for a few minutes). The sauce also thickens even more on standing.

Serve with the crispy bacon, atop each chicken piece with a medley of roast vegetables as shown. Serve in a wee jug or drizzle the gravy from the baking dish over the roasted chicken, tender shallots, fresh greens and the veges, oh and the leftover wine! Leftover? Wine? Are you kidding…

Roast Veges
We love kumara, pumpkin, parsnip, potato and whole field mushrooms coated in Italian herbs and coconut oil, on the bottom level of the oven, the same time you put the chicken on.
Also great with this roasted chicken dish is a buttery kumara mash and steamed green beans with the sauce.

Wine match:

http://www.selaks.co.nz/our-wines/reserve/pinot-noir/