Chicken Chasseur with Mushrooms

📝 Ingredients

• 4 chicken legs (about 250 g each)
• 1 tbsp sunflower oil
• 300 g button mushrooms
• 4 shallots (about 30 g each)
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes (400 g)
• 1 chicken stock cube + 200 ml hot water
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 1 tsp dried thyme + 1 bay leaf
• 15 g fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 280 g long-grain rice
• Salt, black pepper

🍴 Utensils

• Large casserole dish with lid
• Large saucepan
• Chopping board and knife
• Wooden spoon
• Colander

📖 Steps

1. Pat the chicken legs dry with kitchen paper, then season with salt and pepper on both sides. Peel and slice the shallots, chop the garlic, clean the mushrooms with damp kitchen paper (without rinsing them under the tap) and cut them into quarters.
2. Heat the oil in the casserole dish over medium-high heat. Add the chicken legs skin side down, in two batches if they are crowded, and leave them to brown for 6 to 8 min without moving them, until the skin is really crisp and releases on its own. Turn them over and brown for 2 min.
3. Set the chicken legs aside on a plate. Pour off the rendered fat from the casserole, keeping only about 1 tbsp. Fry the mushrooms over high heat for 5 min, until they have released their liquid and start to brown.
4. Lower to medium heat, add the shallots and garlic and cook for 2 min, stirring. Sprinkle with the flour and stir for 1 min to thicken the sauce. Pour in the tomatoes, the stock cube dissolved in 200 ml hot water, the thyme and the bay leaf, scraping the bottom to release the browned bits.
5. Return the chicken legs to the casserole, skin side up, half submerged in the sauce. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook gently for 30 min over low heat without letting it boil hard, then remove the lid and cook for another 10 min so the sauce reduces and coats the meat.
6. Twenty minutes before the end, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and cook the long-grain rice for 10 to 12 min, according to the packet. Drain and keep warm, covered.
7. Check it is cooked: when you pierce the leg near the bone, the juices should run clear and the meat should come away easily. If the sauce is still too thin, reduce it for another 5 min over medium heat. Taste, adjust the seasoning and remove the bay leaf.
8. Finely chop the parsley and scatter it over the chicken. Serve each leg coated in mushroom sauce, with the rice alongside to soak up all the sauce.