Italian chicken and polenta

ischia_chicken.jpg

Serves 4  

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes   

Ingredients
8 chicken thighs, skin on 
1 tbsp flour 
1 tsp ground black pepper 
½ tsp ground white pepper 
5 shallots, finely chopped 
1 small bulb of garlic cut in half 
1 chilli cut in half 
500ml white wine 
500ml chicken stock 
200g tinned cherry tomatoes 
3 tbsp oil 
2 bay leaves 1 tbsp parsley, chopped 
1 tbsp basil, chopped 
1 litre of stock 
130g slow cook polenta 
25g butter 
Salt 

Method
Put the flour, peppers and 1 tsp of salt into a bowl and mix.  Add the chicken and lightly dust with flour. 

Into a large casserole dish add 2 tbsp of oil and cook the chicken on a high heat, skin side down to brown.  Remove when on the darker side of golden.  Add the shallots, garlic and chilli to the pan and cook until golden. 

Meanwhile start your polenta.  Put the stock into a large saucepan and bring to the boil.  Reduce the heat to medium, take a whisk and start whisking the stock.  Slowly but steadily sprinkle your polenta into the stock, whisking the whole time.  Once all of the polenta has been added you don’t have to stir constantly but will need to stir often. 

Add the white wine to the pan and cook for 3-5 minutes until the raw alcohol smell has burned away.  Add the stock and the tomatoes and cook on a fairly high heat for 10 minutes or until the liquid has reduced by approximately half. Reduce the heat to barely simmering (low-medium), add back the chicken and cook for approximately 20 minutes or until your polenta is ready.  Add the herbs. 

Your polenta should now be soft and thick.  Take your butter and stir in. 

Serve with the chicken over the polenta.