Chicken with garlic, olives and saison ale

The secret ingredient to Paul Mercurio's meltingly velvety Italian chicken? Cooking with saison ale – a fruity, spiced beer that helps tenderise the meat as it cooks for a new favourite meal.

Credit: Jiwon Kim

• serves

  5

• prep

  15 minutes

• cook

  1:25 hour

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• Olive oil, for drizzling
• 8 garlic cloves
• 8 eschallots (halved if large)
• 1 free-range chicken, cut into 10 serving pieces (see Note)
• 4 anchovies
• 20 kalamata olives
• 6 thyme sprigs (or lemon thyme)
• 4 bay leaves
• 1 cup (250 ml) chicken stock
• 330 ml Saison ale (see Note)
• Steamed green beans and roasted potatoes, to serve

For the seasoned flour

• ½ cup plain flour
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp black pepper
• ½ tsp ground cumin
• ½ tsp lemon pepper
• ½ tsp cayenne pepper

Instructions

1. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large, heavy-based saucepan. Once hot, add the garlic and eschallot. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes, or until slightly coloured.
2. While the garlic and eschallots are cooking, combine the ingredients for the seasoned flour in a large press-seal bag. Shake to combine. Add the chicken pieces and shake the bag to coat the chicken evenly with the flour.
3. Once the garlic and eschallots are lightly coloured, remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and transfer to a bowl.
4. Heat 2 tbsp oil in the pan, then add the anchovies. Cook, stirring, mashing the anchovies with the back of a wooden spoon. Increase the heat to medium-high. Shake any excess flour off the chicken pieces, then add to the pan, skin-side down. Cook for 5 minutes per side, or until browned. Add an extra drizzle of oil to the pan if needed.
5. Add the olives, thyme and bay leaves to the pan with the eschallots and garlic. Stir to combine, then add the stock first, followed by the saison to the pan – it's better to avoid adding the beer to a hot pan as it can make the flavour bitter. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a low simmer. Cover and cook for 1 hour, or until tender.
6. Use a slotted spoon to remove the chicken and olives to a bowl. Discard the bay leaves, then increase the heat to high and simmer until the sauce reduces. Use a stick blender to blitz the garlic and eschallots to thicken the sauce. Return the chicken and olives to the sauce and simmer to heat the chicken through.
7. Divide chicken pieces between plates and spoon over the sauce. Serve with steamed green beans and roasted potatoes on the side.

Notes

• Cut the chicken into 10 pieces; first remove the legs cutting the drumstick from the thigh. Then remove the wings from the breast making sure to cut a small portion of the breast away also so that the wings have a bit more meat on them. Cut the backbone away from the breast, leaving the breast on the bone. Cut the breast in half lengthways and then cut each breast in half on a slight diagonal so as each piece is roughly the same size. Set pieces aside on a plate.
• Saison is a farmhouse-style ale that originated in Belgium. It is light, spritzy, spicy, herbaceous and quite often high in alcohol content. They were brewed as a seasonal ale for farm workers and as such each farm had its own version or style. In Australia there are a number of micro-breweries in almost every state making their own delicious versions, which are well worth finding for this recipe.

Photography by Jiwon Kim.

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Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.