To boile Chickins
Strayne your broth into a pipkin, & put in your Chickins, and skumme them as cleane as you can and put in a peece of butter, and a good deale of Sorrell, and so let them boyle, and put in all manner of spices and a lyttle verjuyce pycke, and a few Barberies, and cutte a Lemman in peeces, and scrape a little Suger uppon them, and laye them uppon the Chickins when you serve them up, and lay soppes upon the dish.
(from The Good Huswife's Jewell)
- 1kg chicken pieces
- 1.5L chicken broth
- 1 stick butter (about 60g)
- 2 bunches sorrel or other green leafy vegetables, roughly chopped.
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup dried cranberries
- 3 lemons, peeled and sliced
- 3 tablespoons verjuice
- 1 teaspoon mixed spices (pepper, mace, cloves, cinnamon, ginger)
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- slied bread (for serving)
Simmer the chicken pieces in the broth until they're cooked.
Add all other ingredients except the greens and bread. Simmer for 10 minutes or until the dried cranberries have softened, adjusting sugar/verjuice/spices to taste.
Throw in the greens, stir until they are just wilted, and serve spooned over slices of bread. You may want to use a slotted spoon to avoid getting too much broth.
Notes
This dish is brightly coloured, and has a very nice light/fresh flavour. It looks great served up... a nice change from the shades of brown that most meat dishes tend to be. I first redacted it and served at a camping event, and it was a huge success. This recipe would be very easy to make for large numbers of people, I think. The quantities above would serve about 6.
Barberries are not generally available, so I substituted cranberries, which I have been told are similar in flavour. Fresh cranberries would work just as well for this recipe, but dried ones were what was available to me.
The recipe specifies sorrell, but this wasn't available to me either. I substituted one bunch of spinach and one of red chard.