This is one of those dishes that you ignore whilst it’s cooking! A whole chicken is used, so no fuss there! Just bung all the ingredients in a pot with a lid, pop it in the oven, go back a while later and take it out. The one pot cooking maintains the flavours and the nutritional value.

Make sure you have lots of liquid to start with as you will be reducing it by thickening it and adding additional veg.

When it’s ready you will have cooked meat, veg and gravy – ready to go. For those stupidly busy days just pop some baking potatoes in the oven at the same time and you will have a complete meal ready for the troops.

Serves 4 hungry people

Pre heat oven to 220 C/ 430 F

Ingredients

Whole chicken around 2 – 3 kgs

Dessert spoon of olive oil or coconut butter

Handful each

Sage

Rosemary

2 small red onions or 6 -8 shallots peeled. Cut red onions into chunks or leave the shallots whole

4 carrots cut into chunks

4 cloves garlic peeled and chopped

1 – 1 ½  litres of bouillon

Cornflour to thicken. (The white ones require less to thicken than the wholemeal yellow corn variety)

400 gms spring greens or other leafy green veg. De stalk and very finely shred.

Method

Wash and dry the chicken and divide the herbs into 2 lots and place one lot inside.

In a large oven proof pot (allow for plenty of room so the flavours can circulate) gently melt the oil or coconut butter.  Add the onions, garlic and carrots and gently move around the pan to soften the onions, do not brown.

Place the chicken in the pan and add the liquid bouillon, the rest of the herbs and cover. Bring to the boil. Just as the bubbles start to form take off the heat and put in the oven. Cook on 220 C/420 F for 15 – 20 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 140 C/ 280 F for around 2 hours. When it is cooked, you will be able to just pull the bones out.

Gently lift the chicken out of the pot and take out the bones and skin. If small children are eating this ensure you take out all the little bones too. Using a slotted spoon also lift out the veg. Keep the chicken and veg warm whilst you finish off the gravy.

Skim as much of the liquid fat off the top and discard. Make up the cornflour and stir slowly into the pot and put back on the heat to thicken. The amount you use will depend on your personal taste. (At HEO we don’t thicken it at all as we like to keep this a grain free dish.)

Take the pot off the heat and add the finely shredded greens and stir. Let it sit while to get the plates out. The greens will be just warmed but not cooked. Spoon the warmed greens on to plate, top with chunks of chicken and the veg. Spoon over the thicken gravy and serve with potatoes or brown rice.