Spring Chicken – USA Style!

The main technique in this dish is browning the chicken, skin-side down, in your BergHOFF Eurocast Sauté Pan; sautéing the aromatics, and scraping up the browned bits with a little white wine – that’s a technique you can use all your life!

Add all that goodness into your BergHOFF Eurocast Double Roasting Pan’s Grill Plate Lid, and let the afternoon — and your oven — go about its merry business.

You can do this with a whole organic chicken cut into pieces, but use any combination chicken parts you enjoy. I love thighs and legs, so I’m going with those…

Check the cooking steps below for ingredients … and be sure you have Castelvetrano olives (2 cups) on hand as these really are the best!

1. Bring 4 chicken thighs and 4 chicken legs to room temperature. Salt and pepper them well.

2. Cut 1 white onion into halves and then into rings. Leave this to one side.

3. In your BergHOFF Eurocast Sauté Pan, heat at medium-high temperature 1/2 cup of olive oil. Then sear the pieces skin side down until well-browned.

4. While the chicken is searing, place 2 fennel bulbs, woody ends trimmed and cut into rounds, into the lid of your BergHOFF Eurocast Double Roaster (the grill pan part). When you’re disassembling the fennel, pull off the fronds and put them to one side— you’ll be using them for garnish after the chicken comes out of the oven.

Also place the onion rings into the pan.

5. When your sear is done, use silicone-tipped tongs to move the chicken pieces from the sauté pan to the double roster lid, placing the chicken pieces on top of the fennel bulbs and onion rings.

Pour off the fat you rendered in the sauté pan and wipe out the pan. (No need to clean it!)

Now, preheat your oven to 200⁰C.

6. Whilst your oven comes to temperature, heat your sauté pan on the hob to a medium heat and add 1/4 cup olive oil.

When the olive oil is hot but not smoking, brown, add the following ingredients:

• 1 head garlic, peeled and separated into cloves

After the garlic is lightly brown and the garlic flavour has infused into the olive oil, add:

• 2 T fennel seeds
• 1 whole tin anchovies, each filet broken up with the edge of a wooden spoon
• 2 glasses white wine, or 1/2 cup cider vinegar and 1-1/2 cups water
• 1 whole jar capers, brine included

Stir and allow to simmer and slightly reduce.

7. Pour the contents of the sauté pan over the chicken and vegetables waiting in your double roaster lid.

8. Add 1 cup of Castelvetrano olives. Bake in your 200⁰C oven until the chicken is cooked through and tender and the juices run clear (about 30 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken pieces you’re using).

After removing from the oven, let cool slightly before garnishing.

9. Before serving, garnish with:

• 1 cup of Castelvetrano olives
• Red pepper flakes
• Aleppo flakes
• Fennel fronds

10. Serve directly to your table but remember to use a heat resistant mat as the double roaster lid will be hot!

One last recommendation: take it outside to give your family and friends a feast in the Spring air. There’s nothing better!