Roast Cider Chicken with Apple Sauce

Roast chicken is the stuff that dreams are made of! I remember as a child my favourite dish was roast chicken with apple compote and fries. This is my grown up version of this childhood favourite: roast chicken legs with a cider apple sauce. I’ve made this dish with Luxembourgish Ramborn cider, a lovely cider made in the traditional English way. It tastes just like my favourite ciders I drank when I lived in London. And the dish could be fit for a Sunday pub roast!

May 29, 2016

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Roast Cider Chicken with Apple Sauce

2 onions
4 tbsp olive oil
4 apples (Braeburn)
1 cinnamon stick
8 sage leaves
500ml Ramborn cider
200ml chicken stock
2 garlic cloves
4 chicken legs
2 tbsp cornstarch
salt and pepper

Prep: 1h15min – Serves 4

Preheat the oven to 180°C fan.

Peel and slice the onions. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan and fry the onion slices for 5 minutes until soft. Put into a roasting tin and set aside.

Peel and core the apples and cut into bitesized chunks. Put into the frying pan along with the cinnamon stick, ½ tsp salt, the cider and chicken stock. Bring to the boil, then add to the onions in the roasting tin.

Peel and slice the garlic cloves. Stick your finger under the skin of a chicken leg to create a little pocket. Stick 2 sage leaves a few slices of garlic into each pocket, then close the pocket. Repeat with the remaining chicken legs. Season the chicken with salt all over.

Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in the frying pan and brown the chicken legs on all sides. Lay the browned legs on top of the apples in the roasting tin. Cover the roasting tin with foil, put into the preheated oven and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the foil from the chicken after 30 minutes so that the chicken skin can crispen up.

After 45 minutes, check that the chicken is cooked through – if not roast a little longer.

Put the chicken legs onto a plate and cover with foil while finishing the sauce.

Pour the apples and the liquid left in the roasting tin into a frying pan. Bring to the boil. Dilute the cornstarch in 4 tbsp of cold water and add to the boiling sauce and stir until you get a thickened sauce.

Serve the chicken with apple sauce.

This dish goes well with a side of potatoes and green beans.

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