The Squeeze Collective
Dark & Rich Honey Chicken Thighs, Smoked Bacon & Turnips
About
I absolutely adore cooking with honey. Its deep resonant complexity offers a completely unique vehicle for dark caramel and herbaceous tones, and is a great foil for sour and complex flavours. In this recipe I’ve stayed within a long tradition of English cookery, using honey, cider, salt pork and turnips, all magnificent winter ingredients indigenous to the UK.
Ingredients
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Method
Step 1Whisk together the honey, cider vinegar, fish sauce, black pepper, and sea salt in a large bowl. Add the chicken thighs and coat them liberally in the dressing. Cover and leave in the fridge, ideally overnight, but for minimum 2 hours. Remove the thighs and reserve the honey dressing.
Step 2Set an oven to 220 degrees and arrange the thighs on parchment with space between them. Roast for 15 minutes until fully browned.
Step 3Melt butter in a large pan, and sweat pancetta, stirring until the fat has rendered and they are nicely browned. Remove them from the pan.
Step 4Sauté the pearl onions over a high heat until starting to colour. Add the turnips and continue to sauté. When they are starting to caramelise, reintroduce the lardons, place the roast chicken thighs skin side up, and pour in the cider and chicken stock.
Step 5Cook over a medium heat until the broth has reduced to point where it starts to coat the back of a spoon. Remove the thighs, stir through parsley, check for seasoning, and serve.
