Welsh Leek & Chicken Casserole with Baked Herb Dumplings – Using locally sourced ingredients with provenance, this recipe is a real winter warmer, and would be perfect for any family supper to celebrate St David’s Day. Organic Welsh chicken is paired with locally grown Welsh leeks and shallots, which is cooked in a rich chicken stock before being finished with baked herb dumplings.

St David’s Day Recipe

Having just moved to beautiful North Wales, just on the edge of the Snowdonia National Park, I am delighted to announce that I have partnered with Food and Drink Wales, who have asked me to create a Welsh inspired recipe for St David’s Day, using Welsh ingredients, naturally, in order to celebrate some of the fantastic produce that is coming out of Wales. Part of the Welsh Government’s #ThisisWales #GwladGlad campaign is to ensure that Wales and its first class produce are centre stage on the patron’s saint day on the 1st March, and, my special created recipe for Leek & Chicken Casserole with Baked Dumplings, uses locally sourced Welsh leeks, organic chicken and locally grown shallots and herbs, making it a wonderful dish to cook for all the family to celebrate St David’s Day and all that Wales has to offer by way of delicious, high quality food and produce. All that is needed to complete this hearty dish, is a bowl of steamed Blas Y Tir Welsh potatoes, dressed with a knob of salted Welsh butter and some fresh parsley.

Today’s recipe for Welsh Leek & Chicken Casserole with Baked Herb Dumplings would also make a fabulous Sunday lunch dish, as well as a hearty mid-week family supper dish. As regular Lavender and Lovage readers know, I try to cook seasonally and shop locally, and when you have some of the world’s best meat, poultry, vegetables and seafood on your doorstep, it makes sense to utilise it, whilst supporting your local community and the people who grow and produce it all. Living at the neck of the stunning Lleyn Peninsular, as well as vegetables, cheese, sea salt, butter, Welsh mountain lamb and Welsh beef, I have access to the most amazing seafood too, of which our favourites are the Menai oysters and mussels in nearby Anglesey. Wales, as a whole, and especially when I live in North Wales, is a veritable cornucopia of food and drink, which can be enjoyed in Wales, as well as outside Wales too, of course.

My St David’s Day recipe uses one of Wales’s most popular vegetables, as well as being one of the national emblems of Wales, the leek. Having lived with my maternal grandparents in Northumberland in England when I was little, I know and understand the importance of this humble vegetable, as it is an important symbol of growing and providing food for your family there, as it is in Wales; there are numerous traditional Welsh recipes that use leeks, such as Cawl (Wales’s national dish), Glamorgan Sausages (Selsig Morgannwg) and Leek Pudding. The baked dumplings are very reminiscent of Welsh oatmeal dumplings, and have herbs added for extra colour and flavour. And, you don’t have to be in Wales or Welsh to enjoy my recipe, it’s a great winter warmer, especially with all this cold weather that has been blowing down from Siberia lately……you can use chicken breasts in place of chicken thighs, but I prefer chicken thighs for texture and flavour, and they hold up better in a casserole and don’t dry out.

The recipe for my special St David’s Day Welsh Leek & Chicken Casserole with Baked Herb Dumplings is shared below, in a printable recipe card; and, I am also delighted to offer a fabulous giveaway, a St David’s Day Hamper filled with Welsh goodies and produce, on behalf of Food and Drink Wales, you can enter below, just below the recipe. I hope that you all enjoy St David’s Day on the 1st of March, wherever you may be in the world, and do let me know what you think of the recipe I created, if you make it, and DON’T forget to enter the Giveaway below, Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus! Karen

*Collaborative post with Food and Drink Wales*

Welsh Leek & Chicken Casserole with Baked Herb Dumplings

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Serves	4 to 6
Prep time	20 minutes
Cook time	1 hour, 10 minutes
Total time	1 hour, 30 minutes
Allergy	Wheat
Meal type	Lunch, Main Dish
Misc	Child Friendly, Serve Hot
Occasion	Casual Party, Easter, Formal Party, Halloween
Region	British
By author	Karen Burns-Booth

Using locally sourced ingredients with provenance, this recipe is a real winter warmer, and would be perfect for any family supper to celebrate St David's Day. Organic Welsh chicken is paired with locally grown Welsh leeks and shallots, which is cooked in a rich chicken stock before being finished with baked herb dumplings.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon rapeseed oil
• 125g smoked lardons (or smoked streaky bacon cut into small pieces)
• 4 shallots, peeled and diced
• 8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs
• 3 leeks, trimmed, washed and sliced (use the white and the green)
• 450ml chicken stock
• sea salt and pepper to taste (I used Halen Môn Anglesey Sea Salt)
• chopped fresh parsley

Dumplings

• 225g self raising flour
• 1 teaspoon dried herbs (such as parsley, sage, thyme, majoram and rosemary) (or 1 tablespoon of fresh herbs)
• sea salt and pepper to taste (I used Halen Môn Anglesey Sea Salt)
• 110g shredded vegetable or beef suet
• water, to mix

Note

Using locally sourced ingredients with provenance, this recipe is a real winter warmer, and would be perfect for any family supper to celebrate St David's Day. Organic Welsh chicken is paired with locally grown Welsh leeks and shallots, which is cooked in a rich chicken stock before being finished with baked herb dumplings.

Directions

Step 1	In a large oven-proof shallow saute pan that has a lid, heat the oil and then add the lardons and shallots; fry over a gentle heat until the bacon fat is crisp and the shallots are soft. Push the bacon and shallots to one side, or remove, and add the chicken thighs, increase the heat and cook the chicken until it is a pale golden brown. Add the bacon and shallots back into the pan if removed, before adding the chopped leeks.
Step 2	Saute the leeks for 2 to 3 minutes and the add the chicken stock, season to taste with salt and pepper, cover with a lid and simmer over a low heat for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the chicken and leeks are cooked.
Step 3	Whilst the chicken casserole is simmering, pre-heat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas mark 6 and make the dumplings; Mix the flour with the salt, pepper and herbs in a mixing bowl. Stir in the suet and then add water VERY carefully and slowly - mixing in between, until the dumpling dough is soft, but not sticky. Shape the dough into 8 round dumplings.
Step 4	Take the casserole off the hob, take the lid off, and drop the dumplings on top of the chicken and leeks, place the casserole dish in the pre-heated oven and bake for 20 minutes until the dumplings are well-risen , crusty and golden brown.
Step 5	Remove from the oven, scatter the fresh parsley over the casserole and serve straight away with steamed Blas Y Tir baby Welsh potatoes.

GIVEAWAY:

Win a St David’s Day Welsh Produce Hamper comprising:

• 2 x Penderyn miniatures – Whisky and Gin
• Radnor Brecon Smoky Campfire Marmalade
• Radnor Brecon Pin Gin Marmalade
• Nom Nom Halen Mon Sea Salt Chocolate Bar
• Nom Nom Earl Grey Chocolate Bar
• 2 x Tregroes Toffee Waffles
• 2 x Tan Y Castell Welsh Cakes
• 2 x Welsh Brew Tea Bag Sample Packs
• Welsh apron
• Wicker hamper

To enter this St David’s Day Hamper Giveaway, all you have to do is the following:

1. Complete the Rafflecopter widget below to verify your entries – THREE mandatory questions will appear, which you need to answer by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post, following me on Twitter and following Food and Drink Wales on Twitter, before going back to the Rafflecopter form and hitting “Enter”. (After this, you can complete the bonus entries as explained on the form to increase your odds of winning – you can also return daily to tweet this for more bonus entries)

2. Entries are by blog comment, Twitter, Facebook etc

3. Closing Date: 25th March 2018

(For more information on how to enter blog giveaways using Rafflecopter please see this short video)

You can win more bonus entries by tweeting on a daily basis.

It’s EASY! Rafflecopter will tweet, like and follow on your behalf. For information on finding the URL of your tweet please see this

GOOD LUCK!

Karen

a Rafflecopter giveaway