Recipe - Dill Chicken / Recept - Dillkyckling

This is a recipe that really brings back memories. We used to be served this in school fairly often and I do think that we had it at home regularly too.

I might be mistaken but I believe that there's also a very similar recipe but for lamb instead. Swedish readers might want to pipe up and correct me if I'm wrong?

It is funny, I had not eaten this for over 12 years - I don't think I'd be lying if I said that it was over 15 years - but as soon as I sat down to eat it memories flushed over me. Food is one of the things that memories get the strongest associations with, at least for me.

I might have to revisit some of the old dishes I associate with my childhood. There's already been some posts, like my Flying Jacob / Flygande Jakob recipe but there's lots of others that I think (hope?) that you readers might find interesting? Then there are some that are just innuendo heaven when I translate them, Seaman Stew anyone? :)

After that bombshell, let's talk about this recipe a bit.

You can use any chicken meat really, thighs are to prefer for the flavour and texture but 3 - 4 chicken breasts works too if you're not into your thighs.

The amount of water, 1 liter, might look a tad bit little but fear not, it will be ok. If you want to add some more carrot or leek, go ahead. In the recipe I say to use about 500ml of the stock, use more or less to get the thickness of the sauce you want. Guess what - freestyle it! :)

The classic side dish for this is potatoes but I would just as well serve it with rice.

Ingredients (serves 4)
1 l water
1 carrot, peeled and cut into medallions
1 leek, cut into 2 cm wide pieces
2 bay leafs
5 - 6 white pepper corns
2 tsp salt
600g chicken, cut into bitesize pieces
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp plain flour
100 ml single cream
1 tbsp distilled malt vinegar
2 tbsp golden caster sugar
1 bunch of dill, chopped
Salt
Pepper

Method
Put the water, bay leafs, pepper corns and salt into a pan and bring to a boil. Add in the carrot, leek and chicken and let this simmer for about 15 - 20 minutes. Remove any foam etc that gets onto the surface of the water.

Drain the stock into a container and keep the rest in a colander or sieve for the time being.

Clean out and dry the pan. Melt the butter and whisk in the flour, trying not to get any lumps. Slowly add stock, whisking all the time, until you've incorporated about 500 ml of it. Stir in the cream.

Heat the vinegar and sugar either in another pan or in the microwave until the sugar is dissolved. Stir this mixture into the pan.

Add the vegetables and chicken back into the pan and let this heat through for another 5 minutes or so.

Season with salt and pepper.

Enjoy!