grandmother's chicken

2019-10-03

This reminds me of my university days. Every other week, the Ghent University restaurant served "kip op grootmoeders wijze" = 'chicken like my grandmother made it,' which was a rather scrawny chicken leg in some brown sauce and it always came with applesauce.

I googled "kip op grootmoeders wijze" and those people obviously don't have the same grandmother. No single ingredient was common to all recipes except for the chicken. At least, they got that right.

The more commonly agreed-upon ingredients seem to be bacon, mushrooms and dark beer. That is the combination I present here, and we don't have to take satisfaction with a scrawny chicken legs. I had to cut those chicken legs, because they wouldn't fit in my pan otherwise. Choose the best. :-)

I remember that sharp flavor that the bacon adds to the sauce. That is definitely the same as some 40 years ago. I don't remember ever seeing mushrooms in that sauce though, the cheapskates. :-)

INGREDIENTS

This is what you need for 2 servings:

  • ½ chicken
    or 2 chicken legs
  • 3-4 slices bacon, thick-sliced
  • 8 oz. button mushrooms, sliced
  • S&P, spices
  • dark beer
    I uses Guinness extra stout, ½ bottle
Pic1: grandma's chicken
not MY grandma

Directions

 

This is another recipe where I started  pan-frying—dry-cooking—but with the liquor from the mushrooms and the optional beer, this ended up as a pot roast = moist-cooking.

 

Pic2: onions and bacon
Pic3: chicken, skin-side down
Pic4: chicken, skin-side up

 

Pic5: add mushrooms
Pic6: cover, simmer
Pic7: all done

The mushrooms:

The chicken legs:

To save time, work in 1 skillet. :

Optional: