Spring Chicken

A colourful pot of nutritious deliciousness and a go-to spring lunch. Moist is a dreadful word, but proves an apt description for the chicken cooked in this way, soothing broth amplified by its archetypal Italian accompaniment of salsa verde, fragrant herbs mingling with the lemony dressing.

Can anyone suggest a 'moist' replacement? Damp doesn't cut the mustard...

Chicken:

Large chicken
2 bulbs fennel, quartered
2 onions, quartered
1 celery heart, broken apart
Salt and pepper
Few stems of fresh thyme
Chicken stock pot
400g baby new potatoes
2 handfuls baby carrots

125g tenderstem broccoli

2 tbsp full fat creme fraiche
400g frozen petits pois

Salsa verde:

2 cloves garlic
juice of 1.5 lemons
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 dsp capers, chopped
3 hard boiled eggs, chopped
6 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper
50g parsley, chopped
25g mint, chopped

Put the chicken in a large casserole dish, saucepan and just cover with water. Add 1 tsp salt, a few grinds of pepper, thyme, fennel, onions and celery. Bring to the boil and simmer for 30 mins. At this point, add in the potatoes and continue cooking for 10 more minutes. Then, add in the carrots for the final 10 minutes.

Meanwhile make the salsa verde, by combining the capers, eggs and herbs (retain some of the herbs to sprinkle over the top of the chicken). Crush garlic, and stir in dijon mustard, lemon juice, olive oil, whisk gently. Season to taste. Stir into the herby mix and adjust ingredients to taste.

Remove the chicken from the dish, set aside and keep warm. Remove all the vegetables from the pot and arrange in a dish. Remove the fennel, onion and celery and discard (the aromatics will have done their job in flavouring the stock by this point).

Reduce the remaining liquid for around 10 minutes, stir in the creme fraiche and taste for seasoning. Add in the tenderstem broccoli for around 5 mins, until just cooked, then add in the frozen peas and bring back to the boil. Pour over the dish of vegetables. Carve the chicken and arrange on top. Sprinkle with the remaining parsley and mint. Serve with a dollop of the salsa verde on top.