Chicken and cider casserole with apple and mashed potatoes

Even though this meal is taken from my “Quick Food” cookbook it is anything but that. It took probably about one hour or more to make including the preparations. Just a small warning for you. It did tastes really good which is always a bonus. I also had two lovely kitchen helpers (though they probably made more of the food because I was running late but someone forgot to season the first batch of chicken so I call it even).

Ingredients:

• 1 kg chicken fillet into 2cm cubes
• 2 tbsp finely chopped fresh thyme
• 1 tbs oil
• 90 g butter
• 3 shallots, thinly sliced
• 3 1/4 cup cider
• 1 kg peeled potatoes into cubes
• 2 large green apples into eight pieces
• 1 1/4 dl cream
• salt
• pepper

Directions:

1. Season the chicken meat with 2 tbsp of the thyme, salt and pepper
2. Heat the oil and 20 g butter in a large pot over medium heat
3. Brown chicken meat in two rounds of 2-3 minutes each, set it aside
4. Put the shallots and the rest of the thyme in the pan and saute for 2 min
5. Add the cider and bring to a boil while scraping up everything that has settled at the bottom of the pan
6. Add the chicken meat back in the pan and cover with a lid
7. Let it boil for 35-40 min to chicken meat is tender and the sauce reduced
8. Boil the potato cubes and apple pieces in a pan of boiling water for 15-20 minutes, until they are tender
9. Let them drain and put them back in the pan over low heat for 1 minute so that any water can evaporate
10. Remove the pan from the heat and mash the potatoes and apples
11. Stir in 2 tbsp of cream and remaining butter with a wooden spoon
12. Season with salt and pepper
13. Stir the remaining cream into the pan and cook for 2-4 min, until the sauce has thickened
14. Serve with apple and potato mash and optional: a green salad

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