Chicken Hotpot

Try this for a tasty all-in-one baked dish.

• Ready In: 1 hr 20 mins
• Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 6  kg whole chickens
• 1  tablespoon  dripping
• 2  bunches spring onions
• 100  g carrots, sliced
• 100  g butter, melted
• 100  g fresh peas
• 600  ml  boiling  chicken stock
• 1  garlic clove, crushed
• 450  g potatoes, peeled and sliced
• 1  tablespoon  chopped parsley
•  salt and pepper

Directions

1. Use only white part of the spring onions and slice lengthways in half.
2. Preheat the oven to 210C/gas 6.
3. Joint the chicken into 8 pieces. Heat the dripping in a frying pan, add the chicken and colour on both sides to seal – you may have to do this in batches. Remove from the pan and put in an ovenproof casserole dish.
4. In the same frying pan, melt 25g of the butter over a medium heat. Tip in the carrots and spring onions and cook without colouring for about 3-5 minutes. Scatter the carrots, spring onions, peas and crushed garlic over the chicken. Pour on the hot stock and season.
5. Coat the potatoes with 50g of the melted butter and place half the potatoes over the chicken to make a level topping; season to taste. Carefully lay the rest of the potatoes decoratively on top.
6. Brush with the remaining melted butter. Bake for 15 minutes and then reduce the heat to 180C/gas 4. Cook for a further hour, brushing with butter regularly. If the potatoes begin to brown too much, cover with kitchen foil.
7. Remove the hot pot from the oven, sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve with cold pickled red cabbage.