Mediterranean Stewed Hen and Vegetables

Author: Jaime Hartman

Recipe type: Main

Cuisine: Mediterranean

Serves: 6-8

Prep time: 30 mins

Cook time: 2 hours

Total time: 2 hours 30 mins

Ingredients

1 Henry's Stewing Hen (or Henry's Table Hen)
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon peppercorns
1 small onion, peeled and cut into quarters
3 tablespoons butter, ghee, or other cooking fat
1 fennel bulb, sliced thinly (reserve fronds for garnish)
2 garlic cloves, minced
200 grams button mushrooms
2 medium carrots
⅓ cup kalamata or black olives
zest from 1 orange
OPTIONAL - ½ cup heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Place Henry's stewing Hen in large stock pot and cover with water. Add bay leaves, peppercorns, and onion.
Bring to boil, then reduce to medium-low and simmer for 1½ to 2 hours, or until meat is beginning to pull away from bone.
Remove hen. When it is cool enough to handle, remove meat from bones and shred (be sure to save bones and skin for future bone broth making). Set aside.
Reserve 7 cups of the broth to return to the stew later. Save the remainder for another use.
In now empty stock pot, melt cooking fat and saute fennel, carrots, and mushrooms with salt to taste for 3-5 minutes or until slightly softened and aromatic. Add garlic and cook until fragrant.
Add Hen and 7 cups of broth. Bring to simmer and cook for 20-30 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Add olives, orange zest, and optional cream just prior to serving. Adjust seasoning to taste with salt and pepper.
Serve with chopped fennel frond for garnish.

Good Old Chicken Stock

Ingredients

1 Henry's Stewing Hen (or Henry's Table Hen)
Aromatics: carrots, onions, celery, garlic, chard
Water
Salt

Instructions

Method Using a Pressure Cooker -

1. In a pressure cooker, add about 3‐4 cups of water. Place your chicken and some vegetables in the pot. Good vegetables are onions, shallots, carrots, and celery. Close the lid and bring the pressure cooker up to pressure.

2. Once it reaches pressure, let it cook for approximately 20‐25 minutes. Turn off the heat and allow the pressure to subside. When you open the pot, you should have essentially a steamed chicken and a very condensed broth beneath it. This condensed stock can be frozen in ice cube trays or canned (using a pressure canner).

Method Using a Stock Pot -

3. In a large stockpot, bring enough water to boil that it will cover the entire chicken. As the water is heating, cut up your vegetables: carrots, onions, shallots, celery, and even chard. These will add flavor to the stock.

4. Salt the water and place the whole chicken in the boiling water. Cook the chicken at a simmer/soft boil until it is very tender. Essentially, you want to cook it until it falls apart when you try to remove it. This will be a few hours or more.

5. Remove the chicken from the pot. Let it cool to the touch and remove the meat from the bones. Cut or shred the meat into the sizes you want in your soup.

6. With the stock, you have two options. Some folks like to pour the stock through a strainer to remove the vegetables, and then add fresh vegetables back in and cook them to the desired tenderness.

7.The other options is to just keep the vegetables you have in there and add the chicken back to it. If this is your option, you may want to consider adding some chunks of potato earlier on to make it a more filling soup.

8. Add the meat back into the stock, and season to taste and serve over a bowl of cooked noodles.