Spring Chicken with Wild Garlic
A huge patch of wild garlic inspired this recipe by David Wicks, a local Suffolk chef and friend of Sutton Hoo Chicken.
Wild Garlic’s peak season is Mid February to April, it has one of the longest seasons of the wild plants. The small shoots start to appear from mid-February, with the plant reaching its full length in late March. The leaves are best picked when they are young. Around mid-April, the flowers blossom. Then the flowers go to seed and the leaves become bitter, but the seeds can also be eaten raw or pickled like a caper. Wild garlic thrives on the edge of damp woodland, by shaded streams and brooks.
Enjoy foraging for and making this delicious spring chicken dish while you can!
INGREDIENTS
Serves 4
4 Sutton Hoo Chicken thighs
700g Desiree potatoes peeled and cut up small.
A bunch of wild garlic leaves
A good handful of spinach leaves
100g shallots
4 stems of rosemary
Olive oil
Salt
60g butter
METHOD
Debone the thighs, trim off any flappy bits of skin and lay skin side down on the worktop. Sprinkle a little salt on the meat. Take a couple of garlic leaves and fold them into a little parcel. Wrap a thigh around the parcel and sit it skin up on an oiled baking tray.
When all the thighs are done, cover the tray in cling film and leave for a few hours in the fridge.
Peel and chop the shallots and place them with the butter in a little saucepan. Just melt the butter to coat the shallots and set aside.
Chop the rosemary leaves, just cover in olive oil in another small saucepan and heat until the water in the leaves starts to boil off. Turn off the heat and leave for at least an hour to allow the rosemary oil in the leaves to infuse into the olive oil.
Half an hour before serving, remove the cling film, sprinkle a little salt over the skins and place the thighs in a preheated oven (250˚C). Cook for 20 minutes by which time the skins should be nicely browned and crispy.
Whilst the meat is in the oven, boil the potatoes, testing every few minutes to make sure they are just cooked and not wet and mushy. When done either mash them or preferably pass them through a potato ricer. Warm up the shallots and the rosemary. Add the boiling hot shallot mixture. Strain the hot oil from the rosemary leaves into the mix and fold everything gently together.
Place a little oil in a wok or a large saucepan, and stir fry the spinach until the leaves are just wilted.
You are now ready to assemble the dish.
Place a neat pile of the rosemary and shallot mash in the middle of the plate. Put some spinach on top and carefully place a thigh on top of that.
You may wish to serve another vegetable with this. Or roast cherry tomatoes cut in half and place a piece at each corner of a square plate.
