Due to shipping in the 17th century, Europeans became known with food items and spices from different continents. These spices were quite expensive so only the richest people were consuming saffron, cinnamon, ginger etcetera. Saffron became, very quickly, one of the most popular herbs/spices. It was served with chicken, pork, rabbit or apples. It was a way to show your rank to your guests, and to impress them.
Nowadays, saffron disappeared from the Dutch Kitchen. Most people only use it to make a saffron risotto. However, the sweet flavor goes very well with a lot of items like this farm chicken. If you don’t have any saffron near you, you can replace the saffron with an extra teaspoon turmeric.
Chicken Stew, Saffron & Phyllo Dough
Equipment
- Oven
- Baking pan
- Oven dish
Ingredients
- 750 gram Farm Chicken or Chicken Thighs
- 2 tbsp Butter
- 2 Shallots
- 1 clove Garlic
- 5 Carrots
- 2 Bay Leaves
- Some Dried Chiliflakes
- 200 ml Stock
- Some Saffron
- 1 tsp Turmeric
- 200 ml Sauvignon Blanc
- 250 ml Cream
- 100 gram Peas
- 2 handful Spinach
- 1 package Phyllo Dough
- 8 tbsp Olive Oil
- 6 tbsp Almond Chips
Instructions
Preparations
- Slice the chicken in 2cm pieces, the carrots and garlic in slices and the shallots in very fine cubes.
- Add the saffron leaves, bay leaves, dried chili flakes and turmeric to the hot stock.
Time to Cook
- Melt the butter in the baking pan. When melted, add the chicken, shallots, carrots and garlic. Bake this until the chicken is browned and the onion is caramelized.
- Add the white wine and the flavored stock, bring it to a boil and let the sauce reduce by a third.
- In the meanwhile, you can preheat your oven on 200 degrees Celsius or 392 degrees Fahrenheit. And you can start with the phyllo dough.
- Use a brush to divide olive oil on each phyllo sheet. Place the sheets on top of each other. After 3 sheets you can add some almonds chips as well, as a small surprise.
- When the sauce is reduced, you can add the cream, spinach and some black pepper. Cook this for another 10 minutes or until the spinach has shrunk. Then add the peas.
- Transfer the chicken ragout to an oven dish or Dutch Oven. Then you can add the phyllo dough on top. Use a sharp knife to make a few small cuts in the dough so the steam can escape during the baking proces.
Time to set the table!
- Bake the stew until the phyllo dough is brown and crispy. This should take about 10 minutes.
- Enjoy your meal!