Anne Morgan Delia Smith’s Catalan chicken is a chicken and vegetable dish for 6 people. You cook the chicken in cider in the oven for 45 minutes. Then you add aubergines, green peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms and olives, and it takes about 1¾ hours in all.
This recipe comes from her book Frugal Food, from 1976. The book is full of cheap recipes, and this one is good for a special meal. Delia says autumn is the best time to make it, because peppers and aubergines are cheapest then.
Delia has another chicken dish with cider, but it is very different. Her chicken in cider casserole cooks on the hob with bacon and mushrooms, and it has no aubergines or olives.
When you eat it, the chicken is soft and full of cider flavour. The aubergine is soft, and the green peppers are still a little crunchy. The olives taste salty, and the sauce is light and thin.
Delia Smith’s Poulet à la Catalane (Catalan Chicken)
Course: DinnerCuisine: CatalanDifficulty: Easy6
servings30
minutes1
hour15
minutes655
kcalYou need two pans for this dish: a casserole for the chicken and a frying pan for the vegetables.
Ingredients
- For the chicken:
1 chicken, 1.6-1.8kg (3½-4lb), cut into 6 pieces
50g (2oz) butter
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus a little more for the vegetables
225ml (8fl oz) dry cider
2 medium onions, peeled and chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
salt and freshly milled black pepper
- For the vegetables:
3 small aubergines, cut into 2.5cm (1in) cubes
2 medium green peppers, deseeded and sliced
110g (4oz) mushrooms, sliced
6 tomatoes, skinned and chopped
110g (4oz) Spanish stuffed olives, sliced
Directions
- Oven: Heat the oven to 190°C, fan 170°C, gas mark 5. You need a large casserole with a lid that can go on the hob and in the oven.
- Brown: Heat the butter and 2 tablespoons of the oil in the casserole. Add salt and pepper to the chicken pieces. Fry them and turn them often, until they are golden brown all over.
- Onions: Add the onions and garlic. Stir them and cook for 5 to 7 minutes.
- Cider: Pour in the cider and let it bubble for 1 or 2 minutes. Add the thyme and bay leaf. Put the lid on and cook it in the oven for about 45 minutes.
- Vegetables: When the chicken is nearly ready, heat a little more oil in a frying pan. Cook the aubergines, peppers, tomatoes and mushrooms slowly until they are soft. Add plenty of salt and pepper.
- Finish: Take the casserole out of the oven and put it on the hob. Add all the vegetables and the olives, then let it simmer for about 5 minutes.
- Serve: Spoon off the extra fat from the top, and take out the thyme and bay leaf. Put it on a warm dish, with small triangles of fried bread on top if you like.
Notes
- To take off the fat, tilt the casserole a little and spoon the fat from the low side. This is my own tip.
- Check that the chicken is cooked. There should be no pink meat near the bone, or it should be 75°C inside. This is my own check.
FAQs
Should I salt the aubergines first?
Yes, if you have time. This recipe does not ask for it, but Delia likes to salt aubergines in her later books. The salt takes out extra water, so the aubergine has more flavour and is not watery.
Her Complete Cookery Course shows how to do it. Put the cubes in a colander and sprinkle them with salt. Then put a plate on top with something heavy on it, and leave them for about 30 minutes.
Then press out the last of the water and dry the cubes in a clean cloth. You don’t need to wash off the salt. I’d use less salt when you fry them, my own tip.
Can I roast the vegetables instead of frying them?
You can, and I think Delia would agree. Her book How to Cook Book Two says aubergines take in a lot of oil when you fry them. She likes to roast them in the oven or cook them on a griddle pan instead.
Here is my own way to do it. Mix the aubergines and peppers with a little oil and spread them on a baking tray. Then roast them in the same oven as the chicken, for the same 45 minutes.
Fry the tomatoes and mushrooms in the pan as normal. Then add everything to the chicken at the end.
Can I use white wine instead of cider?
Yes, you can use the same amount of dry white wine. This is my own idea, not Delia’s.
But Delia likes cider a lot in Frugal Food. She makes a beef in cider there, and she says it is like a classic French boeuf bourguignon made with cider instead of wine.
She also made her pork sausages with cider sauce with red wine at first. Later she changed to cider, and she says it is just as good. So I’d try the cider first.
Which olives should I buy?
Buy green olives with red pepper inside. You can find them in jars in most supermarkets. I think these are her ‘Spanish stuffed olives’, and you cut them into thin rings.
The same olives are also in our chicken marengo recipe, which we built from her recipes.
How do I make the fried bread triangles?
The book does not say how, so this is my own way. Cut the crusts off 3 slices of white bread, then cut each slice into 4 small triangles.
Heat a little oil and butter in a frying pan. Fry the triangles for about 1 minute on each side, until they are crisp and light brown. Put them on kitchen paper, then add them to the dish just before you serve it.
