Jono & Jules do food & wine

We love this! No fear of either raw or dry barbecued chicken. The chicken is tender and moist and you get lots of delicious barbecue flavour. We’re going to be cooking this all summer!

Wine Suggestion: We started with a glass of Alsace: the Bott-Geyl Pinot d’Alsace “Points Cardinale” which highlighted the ginger and chilli in a very good way.

We then followed with a juicy, medium bodied red, the Ridge Geyserville, a Zinfandel blend. Don’t be afraid of having a red with either Chicken or spice, just make sure the wine isn’t too tannic or heavy, and that there is enough juiciness to provide a foil for any chilli or ginger. In this case the Geyserville added a layer of flavour that gave the chicken extra dimension and celebrated the barbecue char.

Poached and Barbecued Chicken – serves 6

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, quartered
• 2-3 celery stalks, chopped
• 1-2 leeks, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 garlic bulb, halved
• 1 tbsp fresh ginger, chopped
• 1 glass of red wine
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 star anise
• 2 red chillies, halved
• 2 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 large chicken

Heat a large saucepan (big enough to hold the chicken) over a moderate heat, add the oil and sauté the onion, celery, leeks, carrots and garlic together for a few minutes, then add the ginger, red wine, cinnamon, star anise, honey and soy sauce. Bring to the boil then simmer for 2-3 minutes.

Season the chicken and set it on top of the layer of vegetables in the pot, add about 1 litre of water, then cover the pan and simmer gently for an hour and a half.

Preheat the barbecue. Strain 200ml of the cooking liquid into a small pan and reduce over a high heat until it becomes thick & syrupy, remove the chicken from the pot and set onto a tray, brush the reduced liquid over the chicken. Cook the chicken on a moderate barbecue, turning, until charred all over.

If you like you can discard the vegetables boil up the remaining liquid to serve as a sauce.

Serve the chicken with barbecued veg or other nice summer salads.

(Original recipe from Cooking at the Ballymore Inn by Georgina O’Sullivan.)