Poulet Bellevue (Chicken Thighs with Savoy Cabbage, Turnips and Mushrooms)

If you ever see gorgeous crinkly savoy cabbage and you don't know what to do with it, grab a head and remember this easy, delicious one-pan dinner.

The cabbage, which you cut into quarters and toss with olive oil spiked with shiitake powder and soy sauce for a super-umami blast, gets wonderfully caramelized, as do the turnips, which become soft and savory. So do the mushrooms, which become soft and silky.

To make the shiitake powder this recipe calls for, buy a pack of dried shiitake mushrooms (usually sold in 1-ounce / 28-gram packages), place the mushrooms in a spice grinder, mini-chop or food processor and grind them to a fine powder. It keeps, stored in an airtight container or zipper bag, indefinitely.

Serves 4.

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds / 680 grams turnips, peeled, or 2 - 3 bunches Tokyo (baby) turnips

4 tablespoons olive oil, divided

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

8 skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs

1/2 teaspoon fennel seed, crushed slightly

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon shiitake powder (see headnote)

1 teaspoon soy sauce

About 1 1/2 pounds / 680 grams savoy cabbage (1 medium or medium-large head), quartered and cored (remove any very tough outer leaves and save them for another purpose, like soup)

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees F / 205 degrees C.  If using regular turnips, cut them into large chunks – about eight pieces each for large ones, six for mediums, and halved for small (but not baby) ones. If using Tokyo turnips, trim them and scrub them. (Reserve the greens for use in a soup.) Place the turnips in a large bowl, drizzle with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, 1/4 teaspoon of salt and a few grinds of black pepper and toss them well to coat. Spread them on a sheet pan (don't wash the bowl – you're about to use it again) and roast for 15 minutes.

2. In the same bowl, add the chicken thighs and toss to coat with the small amount of olive oil still in the bowl. Add about half the fennel seed, the chopped garlic, 1 teaspoon of the shiitake powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt and a few grindings of black pepper and toss again to coat. 

3. After the turnips have roasted 15 minutes, pull the pan from the oven, move the turnips to the edges of the pan, place the chicken thighs skin-down on the hot pan and return it to the oven for 15 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, in another large bowl, whisk together 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, the rest of the fennel seed, the shiitake powder and the soy sauce. Add the cabbage quarters and use your hands to toss them, coating them with the olive oil mixture. The cabbage quarters will start to fall apart, but that's fine – make sure the leaves get coated. When the chicken has done its 15 minutes, pull the pan from the oven and add the Savoy cabbage. Again, don’t wash the bowl, and don’t return the pan to the oven just yet. Put the mushrooms in the bowl, drizzle with the remaining 1 tablespoons olive, sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt, and toss to coat. Use wooden spoons to toss the cabbage, chicken and turnips together, then use tongs to arrange the chicken thighs skin-up. Don't worry if some of the thighs are on top of cabbage or turnips – that's fine. Sprinkle a generous amount of salt and grind some black pepper onto the chicken, scatter the mushrooms around the sheet pan, then return the pan to the oven for another 35 minutes.

5. Transfer the chicken, savoy cabbage, turnips and mushrooms to a serving platter, then pour any sauce that has accumulated over them before serving.

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