Chicken Ratatouille With A Twist

Before I get into this recipe I want to say that I often deliberately eliminate nightshades and dairy products from recipes and replace them with something else. Although I eat gluten free pizza which has tomato sauce and cheese and I sometimes eat crisps which are, obviously, made from potatoes. It is also optional to use ghee in the dish. This is based on the Winter Ratatouille variation of the Chicken Vegetable Ratatouille recipe in the (credit) Healthy Gut Cookbook by Gavin Pritchard and Maya Gangadharan. I have highlighted green pepper, aubergine and tomatoes in the book with highlighter marker as nightshade ingredients to avoid. That is why I only go for the Winter Ratatouille variation when I make this dish. But that also has tomatoes which brings me to the twist I put on it which is small oranges instead of tomatoes. It meant I had a fruity ingredient and didn't have to use lemon juice as stated in the book. You'd expect small orange segments to add sweetness to the dish but I found that it gave an actual fruity bitterness that actually complimented the vegetable sweetness of the butternut squash ingredient. I'm not saying you might like it but it certainly appealed to my taste buds. It's a fine dinner on its own but I had a side plate of sweet potato, parsnips and spinach for greens with it. So overall it's a fine warm, very filling dinner to get your teeth into in the winter. I eat the chicken off my hands so have a place to put the bones and plenty of paper towels to wipe your face when things get sloppy.

Here's my take on the recipe:

Chicken Ratatouille with a twist

Serves 4

Ingredients:
4 chicken legs
1 tsp sea salt
1 litre (1.75 pints) home-made chicken stock
115g (4oz) diced onion or chopped leeks (white part of leeks only)
4 chopped garlic cloves
1 carrot sliced into rounds
225g (8oz) halved cremini mushrooms
280g (9.5oz) diced butternut squash
350g (12oz) small easy peeler orange segments
10g (0.25oz) chopped flat-leaf parsley*
10g (0.25oz) chopped basil leaves*
60ml (2fl oz) ghee or animal fat

Method:
Place the chicken in a large, deep frying pan and season with sea salt. Add chicken stock to cover about two-thirds of the chicken. Place over a medium-high heat.
When the stock begins to simmer cover, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 45 minutes.
Add the onion or leeks, garlic, carrot, mushrooms, butternut squash and orange segments. Cover and cook for 20 more minutes.
Remove from the heat, add the parsley, basil and ghee and stir.

*Tip: I get 50g cartons of chopped herbs in Aldi to save me time. They are in the freezer section and must be kept frozen at home. They have parsley, basil, coriander leaf (cilantro) and I can also get chopped ginger root. So if you can get them it might save a bit of time in the preparation process.