Our culinary power duo – restaurateur Dimbleby and chef Baxter – return with this new column that celebrates cooking for groups and gatherings without fuss. To kick off: a mean chicken gratin with seasonal green trimmings ...Over the past year, we have attempted to unpick some of the basic principles of cooking to help novice and nervous cooks get started in the kitchen. Now’s the time to put that new‑found confidence to the test.
Over the coming weeks, we’ll be trying to help you cook for a wider audience. There is nothing that gives me more pleasure than cooking for friends and family. In an increasingly digital world, there is something so visceral (literally) about people taking something you have prepared with love and putting it inside their body. It’s almost indecently intimate.
This may be partly why nervous cooks dread the thought of preparing a feast for others – in case they get it wrong. Much of this anxiety is caused by the problem of timing, so we will endeavour to put together menus that don’t require everything to be done at the last minute. We have also created our Kitchen CountdownTM (below) to help you see at a glance what needs to be done when.
We’re starting you off gently, with a simple lunch that just happens to involve a few distinct stages. This gratin would traditionally be made as a way to use up a spent laying hen. Poaching softens the dense fibres of an older bird, and the eggs that were still inside the bird’s body – a little production line of golden orbs of increasing sizes – would be used to thicken the sauce. But unless you live on a farm, laying hens are pretty hard to get hold of – so we have used flour as the thickener instead.
This is a perfect dish for a warm spring evening, served with new season asparagus and greens. So invite some friends, head out into the garden and open the year’s first bottle of rosé.
Chicken, leek and prosciutto gratin
Serves 6
For the chicken and stock
1.5kg whole chicken
500ml chicken stock (if you cannot get hold of fresh chicken stock then it is OK to use water instead)
1 onion, sliced
1 leek, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
8 peppercorns
1 bay leaf
For the sauce
40g butter
40g flour
500ml chicken stock
1 tsp English mustard
1 tbsp chopped tarragon
Salt and black pepper
For the gratin
80-100g prosciutto, roughly shredded
1 leek cut in half lengthways and sliced across into 1cm pieces
100g soft breadcrumbs
½ garlic clove, chopped
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp finely grated parmesan
1 tsp olive oil
Salt and black pepper
1 To make the stock: place the whole chicken in a deep saucepan into which it fits snugly, breast-side up, along with the stock vegetables. Pour in the stock until it almost covers the chicken. Bring the pan to a simmer and cover with a lid. Cook gently for about 1 hour. Turn the chicken upside‑down in the stock and cook for around 10 minutes longer. Turn off the heat, then allow the chicken to cool in the stock.
2Prepare the meat: remove the chicken from the saucepan and pull off all the meat from the carcass, tearing any large pieces into strips about 1-2cm wide. Put the shredded meat into the fridge. Return the chicken bones to the stock and bring it back up to a simmer. Leave it for another hour, uncovered, then strain and set aside.
3 To make the sauce: bring the chicken stock to a gentle simmer in one pan while heating the butter over a medium heat in another. The pan with the butter needs to be big enough to fit all of the stock comfortably. When the butter has completely melted, tip in the flour and stir well with a wooden spoon until you have a paste. Stir over a low heat for at least 3 minutes – it should go a golden colour but should not brown. Now start adding the stock a ladle at a time. If you have never made a velouté or white sauce before the first few ladles can be quite alarming as the flour will clump up and you will be convinced the sauce is going to be lumpy. But stir it well between each ladle and you will end up with something silky smooth. When all the stock has been added, whisk the sauce and simmer for 5 minutes to ensure the flour has cooked through. Add the mustard and tarragon, then season well.
4 To assemble the gratin: set the oven to 190C/375F/gas mark 5. Arrange the cooked chicken, prosciutto and leeks in an ovenproof dish. Pour over the sauce. Mix all the rest of the ingredients in a bowl. Season and sprinkle over the chicken and sauce. Cook for about 30 minutes until the top is golden brown. (If you made the sauce the day before and it is fridge-cold, you may need to add 10 minutes.)
5 While the chicken gratin is cooking, prepare your veg.
Spring greens with garlic and parmesan
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed and peeled
2 large bunches spring greens, washed and thinly sliced
1 tbsp grated parmesan
Salt and black pepper
1 Melt the butter and oil in a large pan. Add the garlic and cook for a minute without colouring. Tip in the greens and stir well over a medium heat for 5 minutes until they are wilted. Stir in the parmesan and season well.
Grilled asparagus
2 bunches of asparagus
1 tsp olive oil
Salt and black pepper
1 Turn your grill to maximum or put a griddle pan over the highest heat on your hob. Trim the tough bases off the asparagus spears. Toss in a bowl with the olive oil and season well. Grill or griddle it for a minute or two on each side until it browns. Larger sticks may require up to three minutes. (If they are really big you can cut them in half lengthwise.)
Kitchen countdown
The day before
- Boil chicken for the stock
- Prepare the meat
1.5 hours
- Make the sauce
1 hour
- Assemble gratin
- Prepare asparagus & greens
30 minutes
- Put gratin in the oven
15 minutes
- Dress and grill asparagus
- Stir-fry greens
1 minute
- Season veg
- Remove gratin from oven
- Pour wine
This is a perfect dish for a warm spring evening, served with new season asparagus and greens. Photograph: Jill Mead for the Guardian 