A braised Italian chicken dish that’s the perfect autumn meal

With tender chicken and a sweet, winey gravy, this is the perfect autumn dish

This chicken and grapes recipe is perfect autumn fare. Photography by Charlotte Bland and Letitia Clark

Letitia Clark

2 min read

12:00AMMay 01, 2024.

Updated 2:50PMMay 01, 2024

The Weekend Australian Magazine

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The meat is tender, juicy and falling off the bone, and the “gravy” this produces has extraordinary depth. Winey, sweet and deeply satisfying, this is a perfect autumn dish.

Try too my other recipes: spaghetti puttanesca, chicken ragu and blood orange panna cotta.

A deliciously earthy chicken dish. Photography by Charlotte Bland and Letitia Clark.

Wild Figs and Fennel by Letitia Clark.

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Braised chicken with grapes and fennel

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 large chicken, jointed into 8 pieces (ask your butcher to do this if necessary)
• 1 celery stalk (optional, if making your own stock – see recipe)
• 2 carrots (optional, if making your own stock – see recipe)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, halved
• A few sprigs of rosemary
• 1 large fennel bulb, cut into wedges
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1 bunch of grapes
• 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
• 2 small glasses white wine/Vernaccia
• 1 teaspoon runny honey
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• About 100ml chicken stock
• Salt

Method

1. If using a whole jointed chicken, you can boil the carcass with a celery stalk and carrots for a couple of hours to make a stock to use in the dish. Preheat the oven to 190C.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a heavy casserole dish. Season the chicken pieces all over with salt, then brown them, a few at a time, skin-side down, over a medium heat until golden brown. Turn them flesh-side down, add the garlic and rosemary to the casserole and cook until the garlic pieces just begin to colour.
3. Once golden all over, remove the chicken pieces, rosemary and garlic and set aside on a plate. Heat the final spoonful of oil in the casserole and cook the fennel wedges for a few minutes, allowing them to turn golden. Add the fennel seeds and grapes, then the sherry vinegar and wine, and allow to boil for a few minutes, stirring and scraping all the nice sticky golden bits from the bottom of the dish.
4. Add the chicken back in with its garlic and rosemary. Now add the honey, balsamic vinegar and a pinch of salt along with the stock. Place in the oven and cook for 40 minutes until the chicken is tender and falling off the bone.
5. Taste and check for seasoning. If your sauce looks too liquid, remove the chicken pieces and reduce it for a minute or two on the hob until syrupy.
6. Serve with some steamed potatoes, mash or simply good bread and a bitter leaf salad.

This is an edited extract from Wild Figs & Fennel by Letitia Clark.

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