Chicken with sherry and picada

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 1 hour 10 minutes

Serves 4

Picada is a thickener – and flavour enhancer – added towards the end of cooking in Catalonia. You don’t have to be cooking Catalan food to use it, though. It is now used as a kind of gremolata too, tossed on to salads of roast fennel and oranges, or over roast chicken. Saffron is used a lot in Spain but not everyone likes the flavour; use it here if you do. You’ll still have a great dish if you don’t.

INGREDIENTS

– 8 chicken thighs, or 4 whole chicken legs, split in two

– 3 tbsp olive oil

– 6 large plum tomatoes

– 1 onion, very finely chopped

– 375ml chicken stock

– 125ml amontillado or oloroso sherry

– 2 bay leaves

– 2 broad strips of orange zest

– 2 thyme sprigs

– 1 slice of country bread, crusts removed, bread torn into pieces

– 2 tbsp slivered almonds

– 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

– ⅛ tsp ground cinnamon

– ⅛ tsp anise seed or fennel seeds

– 2 tbsp roughly chopped parsley

– a few stamens of saffron (optional)

METHOD

Trim any big bits of excess skin from the chicken joints and season them all over.

Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a big shallow casserole (about 30cm across) and brown the chicken pieces on both sides. You don’t have to cook them through, just get a good colour. Lift the joints out into a bowl but leave the casserole where it is to cook the onion in it.

Meanwhile, remove the skin from the tomatoes – unless you don’t mind finding some in your dish – by putting them in just-boiled water for 30 seconds. Lift out with a slotted spoon into cold water. The skin should be soft enough to remove. Halve the tomatoes and remove the seeds. Chop the flesh roughly.

Sauté the onion in the oil/fat left in the casserole until soft, then add the tomato flesh. Cook over a medium heat for 10 minutes, or until you have a thickish mixture. Season.

Add the chicken stock and sherry. Bring to the boil and add the bay leaves, orange zest and thyme. Turn down to a gentle simmer and add the chicken pieces along with any juices that have come out of them. Cook over a medium-low heat for 35 minutes.

Fry the bread in the last tablespoon of olive oil, then put it in a mortar along with the almonds, garlic, spices and parsley. Crush together until you have a coarse mixture.

If you want to add saffron, put a few stamens in a bowl with 100ml of the cooking juices from the casserole. Stir and add to the casserole followed by the picada. Season. Cook gently for five minutes, or until you can see that the mixture has thickened. Check the seasoning and serve.