Cock-O-Van

An oldie but goodie.
Pictures shot with the i-phone, so apologies there.

Ingredients;
Red wine, Chicken bits, Bacon bits, ‘shrooms, Shallots, Garlic, Tomato purée, Olive oil, S&P, Flour, Bay leaves and a sprig of fresh Thyme.

It’s dead easy this;

Season the flour with S&P (and our secret ingredient; Australian Bush spices, oops, secret’s out).

Coat the chicken bits thoroughly in the seasoned flour.

And fry them off in a good glugg of the Olive oil.

Place the browned-off (wouldn’t you be?) chicken into a Slo-Cooker (or casserole dish with a tight-fitting lid).

Fry the bacon bits in the same oil as the chicken. Once it’s brown & crispy add the finely chopped garlic and fry that for another minute.
<rant>
Have you noticed that TV-cooks lately have started to “Chop” not “Crush” garlic? Supposed to influence the taste or some such bollo. Well Mr.Ramsey, Mr.Oliver, Mr.Harriot, if you can taste the difference between chopped and crushed garlic in a completed dish then I’m a Dutchman!
</rant>
Remove the bacon & garlic with a slotted spoon or something like that so as to leave the oil behind in the pan, we’re not finished with that yet and it’s getting better & better as we go along.

I used those pointy Shallots so I chopped them into halves and thirds;

Same with the ‘shrooms, the bigger ones into quarters, some in half and the wee ones left whole.
Chunkeh! (is the word)

Moving swiftly along;
Fry off the shallots and then add the mushrooms, fry on dude!
season to taste (watch the salt, the bacon’s a bit salty too)
add the ‘urbs and the Tom-Purée.

Chuck in about 2/3 of a bottle of red plonk,

and stir through to a luverly rich, red sauce while bringing it just up to the boiling point.

Add the sauce to the slo-cooker, bung on the lid and go enjoy the early summer weather!
It’ll sit there all day, doing its thing, an hour longer will only improve the taste and have that chicken falling off the bone.

If you’re not using a slo-cooker (WHY NOT??) bung the casserole dish into a moderate oven, 150 degrees or so, for a couple of hours. You can’t over-cook this.

Eet smakelijk!