Ingredients
Serves 45 small Maryland chicken legs, skin on, bone in.
¼ bunch thyme
3 eshallots, whole
2 eshallots, finely diced
500ml chicken stock
300 gm pearl barley
1 bunch flat leaf parsley
30 gm diced butter
2 bunches spring onions
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
To prepare the chicken legs:
Pre-heat fan forced oven to 150˚C.
Place the chicken legs into a suitable shallow baking dish to ensure a snug fit.
To this, add 3 roughly sliced whole eshallots, thyme sprigs and season generously with salt and pepper. Finally, add enough stock to cover just over half of the chicken. This will allow the skin to brown in the oven.
Place into the oven, uncovered, and bake for 90 minutes. Once cooked, allow the braised chicken to cool in the liquid before removing.
To prepare the pearl barley:
Simmer pearl barley in plenty of water until soft. The barley will triple in volume. Strain and spread out on a tray to cool until required.
To finish, heat the barley in a saucepan with a cup of the chicken braising liquid. Reduce to the consistency of a wet risotto then remove from heat.
Remove the skin and bone from the spare braised chicken leg. Stir this into the barley with diced butter, plenty of chopped parsley and diced eshallot. Adjust with stock if necessary; the mixture should ooze a little.
To prepare the spring onions:
Carefully trim the roots from the spring onions first, then cut to 10cm lengths.
Peel the strong outer layer off to reveal the shiny white young layer. This should now resemble a baby leek. Wash in cold water to remove any impurities.
In the final minutes before serving, blanch the onions in boiling water for 1 minute. Strain and dress with a little olive oil and salt.
To re-heat chicken leg, place in a moderate oven for 5 minutes prior to serving. Voila!
Note:
This braising technique also works brilliantly with duck. It is a low fuss/high return trick that works. The braising liquid becomes supercharged stock and the barley loves it. An equally delicious alternative to barley is whole farro grain.