Poulet Vallee d'Auge

Ingredients

• 1 free-range chicken, about 1.6 kg, jointed into 8 pieces
• 50 g butter
• 1 tbsp sunflower oil
• 3 shallots, finely chopped
• 250 g button mushrooms, quartered
• 2 firm apples such as Reinette or Cox, peeled, cored and cut into thick wedges
• 60 ml Calvados
• 300 ml dry cider
• 150 ml chicken stock
• 200 ml creme fraiche
• 2 thyme sprigs
• 1 bay leaf
• Salt and black pepper

Before you cook

• Pat the chicken pieces dry and season them all over with salt and pepper
• Peel, core and cut the apples into thick wedges
• Chop the shallots and quarter the mushrooms

Steps

1. Melt 20 g of the butter in a frying pan over medium heat until it foams.
2. Fry the apple wedges for four to five minutes, turning once, until golden at the edges but still holding their shape, then lift them onto a plate.
3. Add the mushrooms to the same pan and fry them over high heat for four minutes, until browned and squeaky, then set them aside with the apples.
4. Heat the oil and the remaining butter in a wide casserole over medium-high heat.
5. Brown the chicken pieces skin side down for six minutes, then turn them and give them three minutes more.
6. Scatter in the shallots and stir them through the fat for two minutes.
7. Pour in the Calvados, stand back, and set it alight with a long match to burn off the alcohol.
8. When the flames die down, pour in the cider and the stock, then tuck in the thyme and the bay leaf.
9. Bring to a gentle simmer, cover, and cook for 30 minutes, turning the chicken once halfway.
10. Lift the chicken onto a warm dish and cover it loosely with foil.
11. Boil the sauce hard for five minutes to reduce it by about a third.
12. Stir in the creme fraiche and simmer for five minutes more, until the sauce coats the back of a spoon.
13. Return the chicken, the apples and the mushrooms to the pan and warm everything through for three minutes.
14. Taste for salt and pepper, then serve with steamed potatoes or plain rice.