Baked Chicken with two types of fennel

On a cold evening, a warming slow-cooked dish of chicken, cooked the Maltese way with potatoes and lots of fennel is a relaxed and delish meal.

Preheat the oven to 180c / GM 5-6.

For four people, you need about 500g of chicken breast cut into strips, roughly equally sized.

• Peel and chop 4 large carrots into chunks about 1cm long and add them to an ovenproof dish.
• Chop 6 medium potatoes into 2cm chunks and add to the carrots.
• Slice a bulb of Florence Fennel,
• a medium onion,
• 2 cloves of garlic,
• zest of an organic,
• unwaxed lemon and add to the dish.
• Prepare 500mls stock with some Marigold stock powder or fresh home-made stock if you have some and add the juice of the lemon to the stock. Pour this over the vegetables and drizzle with some olive oil and sprinkle a good heaped teaspoon of fennel seeds over the dish.
• Cook for an hour under foil and then give it a good stir. Tuck the chicken pieces into the dish and cook uncovered for 30 minutes.

Check the seasoning and then serve with fresh tender-stem broccoli or other green veg.

The two fennels give a wonderfully fresh taste to the chicken.