The Hairy Dieters Old Fashioned Chicken and Vegetable Stew

Another good one from the Hairy Dieters cook book. This is sure to warm you up on a cold evening and is really nutritious and tasty. You cut all the fat off the chicken legs so it is pretty good for you too, especially with all the veggies. You will need:

3 tbsp plain flour
2 tsp dried thyme
4 chicken leg quarters
2 tbsp sunflower oil
4 rashers of smoked back bacon, cut into 1cm wide strips
2 medium onions, chopped
2 celery sticks, thinly sliced
150g chestnut mushrooms, quartered
500ml bottle of dry cider
300ml chicken stock, made with 1 chicken stock cube
2 bay leaves
400g Chanteney or other small fat carrots, trimmed and peeled
2 slender leeks, trimmed and cut into 2cm slices
sea salt
ground pepper

Writing out the ingredients I realised I completely ignored most of it! I didn't us bacon and I used shallots instead of the onions. I also just used the stock cube, instead of making a stock! And I used less carrots. The rest is the same.

First of all take the skin off the chicken. Trim off any fat and cut the leg in half so you have eight chicken joints. Then put the flour and thyme in a freezer bag and shake the chicken in the bag. Fry in a non stick pan in the oil until brown and add to a stock pot. Prehat the oven to 180c/ Fan 160c and Gas Mark 4.
Put the bacon, onions and celery in the pan used for browning the chicken and fry for 4-5 minutes until lightly browned. Add the mushrooms- cook for 2 minutes and then tip everything into the pot with the chicken. Sprinkle in any remaining flour.
Then put half the cider in a frying pan and simmer. Put all the cider in the pot with the stock, then stir in the carrots and bay leaves and bring to a simmer on the hob. Then put in the oven, covered with a lid.
Cook for 50 minutes to one hour then add the leeks and cook for 30 minutes. I also added sweetcorn ten minutes from the end. I served with sugar snap peas. Super wholesome.