Chicken with girolles

Autumn is one of London's loveliest seasons. The muggy, grey summer gives way to brisk, clear days and the oppressive expectations of earlier months fade into a muted appreciation of the last few light evenings. Even so, when I expressed this view to Mr Fork earlier this week, he rolled his eyes at me and reminded me, not unreasonably, that I say every new season is my favourite. "Not true", I countered. Like many of my countrymen, I hate winter because it is cold, dark and horrid, except for a brief flurry of fairy-lit gorging and debauching at Christmas. 

Autumn, however, is generally wonderful. The weather is mild, and one gets to try out a new winter coat and cute ankle boots. Along with the wardrobe excitement, which is surely a legacy of the back to school days, September is one of my favourite months for seasonal cooking. It's the time when the woodsman's arts are at their peak, bringing game and foraged things to the markets and restaurants of a city that sometimes feels too far removed from the countryside it encroaches on. Best of all, September means mushrooms and the chance to dust off the casserole and spend an afternoon cooking slowly. Things like this chicken with girolles that we ate a month ago on a sunny pavement in the Languedoc: perfect autumnal eating tinged with the memories of summer.

We ate this at MilleZime in Uzes, which is one of those wonderful French market towns complete with fountains, a tower and a plethora of good bakeries. Mushroom season was well under way in the Languedoc and MilleZime chose to celebrate this with a special menu of girolles. A deceptively simple dish of farm chicken and mushrooms was so enjoyable, I wanted to recreate it as soon as we got home.

Chicken with girolles

serves 2

This is a wonderfully simple, deeply savoury dish which relies on top quality meat for its flavour. Whilst I abhor free range bossiness, this really ought to be made with the best chicken you can find. Likewise, it needs good, ideally homemade, stock for the same reasons. The sauce is going to be reduced so I would recommend waiting till the very end to season it.

2 free range chicken legs

A little olive oil

3 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped - I used fat, purple garlic leftover from France which is quite mild. I'd probably reduce the quantity for English garlic.

1 red onion, roughly chopped

4 rashers of streaky bacon

25g of dried mushrooms - something like girolles or plurottes, not porcini

750ml to 1 litre of lightly seasoned chicken stock 

150g to 200g of fresh girolles

2 tsps cornflour mixed with water

A handful of parsley, finely chopped

Heat a small slug of oil in a casserole and, when it is hot, brown the chicken on all sides. Once it is golden, remove it to a plate and add the bacon. Once the bacon is crisp, turn down the heat. Add the onion and allow to soften. Add the garlic and let it colour slightly. 

Return the chicken to the pan along with the dried mushrooms and pour in enough stock to cover. Put the lid on the casserole and reduce the heat to as low as it will go. Cook gently for about 45 minutes, until the chicken is tender and the stock has taken on the flavour of the mushrooms. 

Remove the chicken to warm plate and strain the stock to remove the onion, mushrooms and bacon. Return the strained stock to a clean pot over a high heat and reduce till only half the sauce remains. Turn down the heat and add the cornflour mixture, little by little, until the sauce has thickened. You may not need to add it all. In France, they probably used butter and flour to thicken the sauce, but I prefer the cornflour thickener. At this point, you could turn off the heat and leave everything overnight in the fridge. It will be better for it.

The next day, or as soon as the sauce thickens, if you can't wait, return the chicken to the pan and add the fresh girolles. Cover and reheat slowly over a low heat till the chicken has heated through and the girolles have softened. Stir through the parsley and check the seasoning. Weirdly, even if you haven't added salt, it might not need more than a little black pepper. Serve with something starchy like buttered tagliatelle. Try not to dread the onset of winter and enjoy the autumn while it lasts.