The Teaspoon: Oriental Fennel Chicken

By Julie

I am a big fan of fennel. To my dismay, the Spanish are not. I cannot find it anywhere here. But this week, I had enough. I ordered it from my Ukrainian grocers of choice who normally are my ginger dealers as ginger turns out be also on the list of the less popular foods in Northern Spain. Anyway, there it was, immaculately white and green, simply appetizing and waiting for me to turn it into something delicious. You don’t even need much turning, as fennel is incredibly versatile - a friend of mine cuts it up and eats it raw from a bowl, a bit like crisps but healthy. My baby daughter has had it steamed in combination with apple and chicken or a mashed banana, she loves it and on top, it has huge calming benefits for her little tummy.

One fennel classic is a salad with orange slices and black olives, which inspired me to the following recipe. I like the quirk of the Kashmiri cuisine to add dried fruit to rice and meat dishes, so I incorporated it here to give it an Oriental flair. However, if you don’t believe in mixing savoury food with sweet flavours, you can replace the dried fruit by black olives. Now go on, off to the kitchen!

Ingredients

Yield: serves 4

4 chicken breasts (about 600 g)

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons raisins or dried apricots, roughly chopped

1 big fennel tuber (roughly 300 g), washed and sliced

1-2 garlic cloves, chopped finely, according to your taste

Juice of 1/2 orange

240 ml chicken broth (about 1 cup)

200 ml single cream

Salt

Pepper

1 teaspoon paprika

40 g unsalted butter

Preparation Method

Firstly, you will need to sear the chicken breasts in a bit of olive oil. Take them out of the frying pan when they turn a nice golden colour and “park” them in a casserole dish. Do not worry that they are not done yet, they will continue cooking in the oven later on.

Preheat your oven to 180 C / 356 F. To the pan used before, add your fennel slices and garlic, stir and take care not to brown the garlic too much as it gives it a bitter flavour. Pour in orange juice and chicken broth and cook for about five to ten minutes on medium heat. Add the spices together with the single cream.