• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Lambs Ears and Honey | A Food & Travel Blog
  • Home
  • Recipes
  • About Me
  • Work With Me
  • Cookbooks
  • Cookbook Club
  • Navigation Menu: Social Icons

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • RSS
menu icon
go to homepage
search icon
Homepage link
  • Recipes
  • About Me – Lambs Ears and Honey
  • Work With Me
×
Home » Recipes » MAINS » Chicken, Leek, Fig and Fennel Ragout – a Winter Solstice Celebration

Chicken, Leek, Fig and Fennel Ragout – a Winter Solstice Celebration

24/06/2013 by Amanda

Winter solstice garden

Winter has been nipping at our heels in the Adelaide Hills of late, with a notable sartorial focus being placed by the locals on fleecy track pants, flannelette pyjamas, fluffy slippers or uggies and woolly hats.  This is a time of the year when comfort takes precedence over elegance (for anyone over the age of 25, that is) and some among us begin to wonder just exactly what time is considered too early to slip into the aforementioned cosy night attire.  Please be warned – anyone knocking on our door after about seven in the evening will not find us in a fit state to formally receive guests unless forewarned.  This is also the time of year when winter is at it’s deepest, but this weekend saw the passing of the winter solstice – the shortest day and longest night of the year – thus the summer light begins to glow ever so faintly at the end of the tunnel.

Winter solstice 2013

The winter solstice has much more significance in the icy northern hemisphere winters where it gets a good deal colder than here.  In ancient times, winter was a hazardous and uncertain season with no guarantee that the subsistence rural communities of the colder climates were going to make it through to the end intact.  Much depended upon careful planning during the harvest months and even more careful use of resources during the winter and the solstice celebrated the success of surviving the worst of it.   Some communities observed it before the worst of the deep winter, making it the last of the feasting celebrations, using the fresh meat afforded by the killing off of cattle to avoid having to feed them through the winter.

Winter solstice mists

The rituals associated with the winter solstice vary depending upon the cultural background of the tradition.  Many pagan rituals include the use of fire to signify warmth, cleansing for the coming new season and the renewal of light .  The ancient Romans kicked up their heels with feasting, gift-giving and days of Bacchanalian partying.  While we complain of the cold here in the southern hemisphere, we really don’t generally do it all that tough so I stop short of celebrating with days of decadence and debauchery, but did invite some friends over for dinner.

I had some irresistibly soft and sticky Willabrand dried figs  that I’d bought at Adelaide Showgrounds Farmers Market and wanted to combine them with some of the beautifully fat fennel bulbs that are in season.  I surfed around on the interwebz for a bit searching for inspiration and eventually developed this chicken, leek, fig and fennel dish.  It’s not the loveliest and most photogenic dish in the world, but it’s right up there for flavour and boasts something of the “wow” factor.  If you can’t find fig syrup or vincotto, use honey instead, but do try to find the fennel pollen.  It won’t overpower the dish with a fennel flavour, but adds a final burst of freshness that will surprise you.   Add that to the fact that it is another of my simple one-dish-wonders and it’s ticked all my boxes.  I hope you like it.

Winter solstice chicken, fig and fennel ragout

Winter solstice garden

Winter Solstice Chicken, Leek, Fig & Fennel Ragout

Amanda McInerney of www.lambsearsandhoney.com
A warming one-dish comfort meal that will excite the taste buds on a chilly winters night.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes mins
Cook Time 50 minutes mins
Total Time 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins
Course Main
Servings 6

Ingredients
  

  • 1 kilo chicken chops chicken thighs on the bone, with or without skin - you decide
  • 1 large or 2 small fennel bulb, sliced into wedges with base attached to hold together
  • 2 large leeks sliced thinly
  • 4 large carrots chopped in chunks
  • 250 gms soft dried figs, roughly sliced
  • 2 cups chicken stock
  • 1 cup white wine
  • 100 mls olive oil for frying
  • salt
  • pepper
  • fig syrup or vincotto
  • fennel pollen available in gourmet stores

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 180C.
  • Heat olive oil in shallow fry pan, season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper and brown all over, in small batches. Set aside.
  • Add more oil if needed, then add sliced leeks and sweat down until soft and just beginning to caramelise. Spread out in a large baking dish.
  • Check oil again, then add the fennel wedges, browning on each side, but taking care not to break them up when turning. Distribute them in baking dish.
  • Add browned chicken pieces to the baking dish, nestling them in on top of the leeks, among the fennel.
  • Add the carrots and chopped figs.
  • Pour over the hot stock and the wine.
  • Cover with foil, place in the oven and cook for 40 minutes, until thighs are cooked through.
  • Remove thighs and set aside in a warm place.
  • Stir vegetables gently then, leaving baking dish uncovered, return to oven and cook vegetables for further 5-10 minutes until the liquid is reduced and thickened.
  • Return chicken to the dish, stir gently to coat with vegetables and sauce.
  • Drizzle with fig syrup, sprinkle with fennel pollen and serve.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

All of the photos used in this post were taken on my Iphone and, if you think they look familiar, were previously shared on my Instagram account.  For these, and more, follow me on Instagram here.

[mc4wp_form id="16750"]

Related posts

  • Cherry Tomato Confit Cherry Tomato Confit
  • Rhubarb Shrub Recipe – If Ever You Were Thinking of Fermenting, Now is Absolutely the Time Rhubarb Shrub Recipe – If Ever You Were Thinking of Fermenting, Now is Absolutely the Time
  • Sugarplum Slice – A Delicious Dessert or Lunchbox Treat Sugarplum Slice – A Delicious Dessert or Lunchbox Treat
  • Fennel, Orange & Salmon Bake Fennel, Orange & Salmon Bake
  • Bulgarian Fresh Food – With Produce like This, No Wonder They Love Salads! Bulgarian Fresh Food – With Produce like This, No Wonder They Love Salads!
« Airlie Beach in the Whitsundays – A Great Place for a Feed!
Picture Perfect – Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Lizzy (Good Things)

    June 25, 2013 at 3:01 am

    Gorgeous images, Amanda. Love the story behind it too… and the recipe sounds yummy. Willebrand figs are divine and I can imagine the flavour combination. If I come over in my pyjamas, will you feed me?

  2. InTolerant Chef

    June 25, 2013 at 7:45 am

    What lovely sweet stickiness, it sounds perfect for Mid Winter feasting! The only problem after the solstice is ‘when the days begin to lengthen, the cold begins to strengthen’ and with minus5’s already I’m not looking forward to that!

  3. Kath

    June 25, 2013 at 12:43 pm

    Now, that combination sounds wonderful and very seasonal.I’m wondering about the fennel pollen; could that possibly be collected one’s self from the heads of wild fennel which grow prolifically in some Adelaide Hills gardens ( viz.mine)? Keep warm, Amanda!

  4. Mel @ The cook's notebook

    June 25, 2013 at 8:10 pm

    yum! that looks great 🙂

  5. Karen Heath

    June 25, 2013 at 8:37 pm

    Yum Amanda! I have also bought the willebrand figs from the ASFM – but they just got eaten as they were at my desk at work – didnt even make it home into the kitchen, let alone into a dish like yours. Note to self ….. must try harder next time to leave some for cooking.

  6. Hotly Spiced

    June 26, 2013 at 10:51 am

    I say anytime after dark you’re justified in slipping into your uggies and pjs. That’s my rule around here especially as our house is freezing. That’s a lovely warming dinner. I love leeks and they go very well with chicken xx

  7. Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella

    June 26, 2013 at 7:47 pm

    We had an uncharacteristically warmer day today but this would have been welcomed nevertheless 🙂

Primary Sidebar

Don't run the risk of missing a post! Subscribe to Lamb's Ears and Honey

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Connect with me

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS

Recent Posts

big flavours

Big Flavours in May with Everything is Indian in the Cookbook Club

Two Days in Boston – A Leisurely Wander with a Limp

Why We Still Love Cookbooks (And Keep Buying Them)

donna hay

Hello to April and Hello to a New Cookbook Club Selection

COMMENTS, FEEDBACK, QUESTIONS?

I love to hear what you think so please leave a comment or ask me a question!

Search This Website

Archives

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

Footer

Featured Recipes

Featured Posts

COPYRIGHT © 2025 LAMBS' EARS AND HONEY