Chicken Rillettes

Preheat the oven to 150 C / 300 F / 130 FAN / Gas 2.

Place the duck fat in the roasting dish to melt in the oven.

Peel the garlic and press down on the cloves with the flat side of a sharp knife to crush the cloves. Season the chicken with the salt and pepper and nutmeg and place in the hot roasting dish, along with the garlic, thyme and bay leaf.

Cover the dish with foil and cook for about 2 hours or until fork tender. Leave until it is cool enough to handle.

Once cooked, Remove the skin and shred the meat into small pieces using 2 forks. Discard the skin and bones. (You can make a quick stock out of these). We also mash the garlic cloves up with the shredded chicken.

Season to taste and add more salt & pepper if you need.  Strip the leaves from the remaining sprig of thyme, roughly chop and add to the chicken.

Mix in about 4 tablespoons of the cooking fat and juices so that the chicken rillettes stay really moist.

Pack into jars or ramekins and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

You can gently heat 150g of butter in a saucepan. Once melted pour over the chicken if you wish as this will help it keep a little longer in the fridge.

Ours was going to be eaten quickly with hot buttered toasts and freshly baked breads.  But it’s the perfect starter or sandwich filling too.

Enjoy x

Recipe courtesy of @Stephs_food_diary