Chicken Supremes with Roast Garlic and Tarragon Brioche Pudding

Unseasonably bleak spring weather called for something super tasty and this fit the bill. It's one of the recipes I most looked forward to trying and now that I've sourced brioche loaves, it's all systems go. I had a corn-fed chicken in the freezer that i wanted to use and this seemed like the right time to free 

 the bird. The chicken had to be defrosted and then it was time to start on the brioche pudding. First, what seems like an Ottolenghi favourite, roasting a whole head of garlic wrapped in foil after being drizzled with olive oil and salt, and roasted for 35 minutes. The garlic comes out all soft and squishy and fragrant. When it's cool enough, you squeeze it out of its skins and squish it into a paste with the back of a fork along with the oil that it was roasted in.

While that's happening, you beat eggs and add cream, chopped tarragon, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Then remove the crusts from the brioche loaf. This one is from New Norcia bakery in Mount Hawthorn.

Slice the loaf lengthways into three horizontal slices. Then you grease and line a loaf tin. Then layer - one slice of brioche, top with half the garlic paste, one third of the eggy creamy mixture, another layer of bread, more garlic, more eggy creamy mixture, the final layer of bread and the rest of the cream. With the exception of the bread - I had some extra, it fit beautifully into my tin. Confession; I didn't use all the garlic for fear of consequences but I think I could have and should have.

The concoction is left for about half an hour to allow all the eggy cream to soak into the bread, then bunged into the oven to cook. Time to prepare the pea and tarragon jus. I had some homemade chicken stock frozen so I used that along with some frozen peas and the tarragon I had from a while back. I probably didn't reduce the stock enough but the rest was pretty easy, just add some butter at the end to make it saucy. Mine was a bit runny.

I jointed the chicken and just used the quarters. They were browned in some olive oil then basted with some thyme and butter then placed in the oven until cooked, basting occasionally.

Meanwhile the brioche pudding was allowed to sit and absorb it's juices before being sliced and browned in butter. Readers of this blog and those who know me will realise that I fast-tracked through this stage and so I didn't get the neat slices pictured in the book.

Serving was placing chicken and pudding slices on a plate and adding the pea and tarragon jus. Although there are quite a few steps and they take a while to complete, it wasn't difficult and it was absolutely delicios, definite one I'll be repeating. Not a diet food, though!