Chicken and leek thingy in wine gravy

We're moving house!  Which means we've got to eat everything that's in the freezer - and there aren't enough mealtimes to do it in.

One of the very few things we don't like about this flat (we're relocating to reduce our respective commutes, otherwise we love it here) is the crappy freezer - it's too small, and it only has one shelf in it, no drawers, so stuff has a tendency to fall out and you can't get to the back of it.

Which is why I found myself looking at a chicken breast, which happened to be at the front, trying to decide what to do with it.

Chicken goes nicely with leek.  So I bought a leek.  It goes nicely with ham, so I bought some ham too (always buy ham from the deli counter, it's nicer sliced fresh off the ham than from a sweaty packet, and you can buy the exact amount you need).

It wasn't until this point that I started to think about what I'd actually make, and the idea of a ricey thing with gravy took hold.

So, here's the plan.  Brown or whole grain rice is needed here, and it takes forever to cook (25-30 minutes according to the packet I have here) so the first task is to get a pan of salted water on the boil.

While the water's boiling, start chopping your leek and an onion.  You can start them sweating over a low heat in butter and olive oil as soon as the rice (I counsel 50g per person or a little less) has gone into the boiling water.

The leek and onion will want a bit of flavour added - I used salt, pepper, quite a bit of tarragon and a hint of thyme. 

They're all quite happy for a little while, the rice needs time to cook and nothing bad will happen to the leek-and-onion while it's on such a low heat.  Give both the occasional stir, but otherwise you've got ten minutes to yourself.

Now.  Gravy.

Add two tablespoonfuls of cornflour to the leek-and-onion-and-butter-and-oil mixture and stir it all around until it's all been absorbed.  Now add liquid, in the form of a glass of white wine and about the same amount of chicken stock.

Add the liquids gradually, but by bit, stir, and wait to see what happens - if the gravy is too thick or too floury you can add more liquid, but you can't go the other way - you can't make it thicker by adding cornflour because you'll just end up with lumps instead.

While that's going on, fry your chicken - small pieces, three minutes each side, turning once, in a hot pan with a mixture of butter and olive oil.   That's your route to the tastiest small pieces of chicken (for a whole bird, or bigger portions, you want to go low and slow.  Don't ask me why it works this way - it just does.

What about the ham?  That goes into the gravy at the last minute, as it just wants to equalize temperatures rather than cooking, torn into little strips.  Discard any fat or gristle.

I do believe my chicken and leek and wine thingy is an original recipe.   My girlfriend said it was like a risotto, but the cooking techniques and texture of the final result are quite different.  The ingredients would work as a risotto, but using brown rice instead of arborio makes for a different experience all round.

I like my name better, too.  I intend to say thingy far more often from now on.