summer

Honey & Thyme Pan Fried Chicken with Shaved Fennel & Parmesan Salad

August 21

More often than not, the simple recipes are the ones we make time and time again. This very easy recipe is precisely one of those. It takes its inspiration from Maura O’Connell Foley’s roast chicken version from her timeless cookbook, My Wild Atlantic Kitchen, which creates a honey & thyme jus with Noilly Prat to serve over the roasted bird- a dreamy Sunday dinner dish. In this simplified pan fried version the honey and thyme along with white wine vinegar is used to create a sweet and sticky sauce for pan fried chicken breasts. Serve it with a salad of dressed summer leaves or this crunchy fennel slaw.

Serves 4

Method

1. For the fennel salad, add the thin fennel slices to a high sided serving dish, drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice and toss to combine. Season generously to taste before using a vegetable peeler to shave the Parmesan cheese over the top. Toss it altogether with the pine nuts and set aside.
2. Place a large frying pan on a high heat and add the oil. Season the chicken breasts generously with sea salt and ground black pepper and place on the pan to fry. Lower the heat to medium high and continue to cook until the chicken is thoroughly browned and almost half cooked through (approx 4 minutes).
3. Flip the chicken and add the butter and thyme to the pan and using a tablespoon, continue to baste the chicken until cooked almost fully.
4. Just before the chicken is cooked, add the white wine vinegar and allow to bubble for 30 seconds or so before adding the honey and whole grain mustard. Shuffle the pan to bring the sauce together and to allow the chicken to get completely coated in the sauce that forms. Once the sauce has come to a simmer and become slightly thickened remove from the heat and slice the chicken into 2cm pieces on the diagonal.
5. Serve to the table on a platter with the remaining pan juices spooned over the top. Enjoy alongside the fennel salad.

1 tbsp olive oil

4 small free range chicken breasts

75g butter

A good handful of thyme sprigs

3 tbsp white wine vinegar

2 tbsp honey

1 heaped tsp whole grain mustard

Sea salt and ground black pepper

For the shaved fennel slaw:

2 bulbs of fennel, finely sliced on a mandolin

50g Parmesan cheese

50g pine nuts, toasted

Juice of ½ lemon

Extra virgin olive oil