Hay-Baked Chicken with Vin Jaune Cream and Morels

⏱ 110 min · Serves 4

A whole chicken buried in sweet meadow hay and sealed in a casserole, so it steams in fragrant smoke while it roasts. Crack the lid at the table and the room fills with the smell of a summer field. The sauce — Jura vin jaune, cream and soaked morels — is the great Franc-Comtois classic, nutty, sherried and utterly luxurious.

Per serving: 772 kcal · 58.0g protein · 6.0g carbs · 54.0g fat

Ingredients

• 1 free-range chicken, about 1.6kg
• 2 large handfuls (roughly 80g) clean edible meadow hay, untreated
• 30g butter, softened
• 1 lemon, halved
• 4 sprigs thyme
• 1 head garlic, halved across
• Sea salt and black pepper
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 25g dried morels
• 200ml vin jaune (or a good fino/oloroso-style Savagnin)
• 1 banana shallot, finely chopped
• 250ml double cream
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• Squeeze of lemon juice
• Small handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Method

1. Take the chicken out of the fridge 1 hour before cooking. Soak the morels in 200ml warm water for 30 minutes, then lift out, squeeze gently and reserve the soaking liquid (strain it through a coffee filter or muslin to remove grit).
2. Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan. Season the chicken generously inside and out. Push the softened butter under the breast skin, and stuff the cavity with the lemon halves, thyme and half the garlic head.
3. Warm the oil in a large heavy casserole over medium-high heat and brown the chicken all over, about 8 minutes, turning with tongs. Lift out onto a plate.
4. Briefly dampen the hay under the tap and shake off the excess (damp hay smoulders rather than burns). Lay two thirds of it in the casserole, sit the chicken breast-up on top, tuck the remaining garlic alongside, and cover the bird with the rest of the hay.
5. Clamp on the lid and bake for 1 hour 10 minutes, until a probe in the thickest part of the thigh reads 74C. Leave the lid on and rest for 20 minutes off the heat — it keeps cooking gently and stays absurdly juicy.
6. Meanwhile, make the sauce. Sweat the shallot in a splash of oil or butter until soft. Add the morels and fry 2 minutes, then pour in the vin jaune and the strained soaking liquid. Simmer hard until reduced by two thirds.
7. Stir in the cream and Dijon, simmer 5-8 minutes to a coating consistency, then season and sharpen with a little lemon juice. Keep warm.
8. Lift the chicken from its nest of hay (it will be pale gold and smell of hot meadow). Tip any juices from the cavity into the sauce and whisk through. Carve, spoon over the morel cream, scatter with parsley and serve with buttered new potatoes or wilted spinach.