Wild Garlic & Roast Chicken Lasagne
Seasonal cooking does not get much better than this recipe! We feel certain that this creamy, punchy wild garlic lasagne, by our Director of Food, Joey O’Hare, will be a hit with the whole family. The sweetness of sautéed leeks give lovely depth, and mature cheddar cheese makes this ultra satisfying.
Cooking time: 50-60 mins.
This recipe serves 6
Ingredients:
1 chicken, or 600 g roast chicken
Butter and/or olive oil, to roast
200 ml chicken jus, from roasting
3-4 large leeks (650 g when chopped)
9-12 lasagne sheets
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
flakey sea salt
Ingredients for white sauce:
40 g butter + 1 tbsp
40 g flour
1 litre whole milk, or goat’s milk
24 wild garlic leaves (approx. 4 tbsp when finely chopped)
100 g strong cheddar
50 g parmesan
2 heaped tbsp cream cheese
The Method
Preheat the oven to 180C. Pat your chicken dry with kitchen paper then slather with butter or olive oil - or a little of both - and season generously with flakey sea salt. Sit in a snugly fitting tray and roast in the preheated oven. The cooking time is 15 minutes per 450g, plus an extra 20-30 minutes. Baste the golden fat back over the chicken at least once during cooking. Once cooked, check that the juices run clear when the thigh is pierced with a skewer. Allow to cool before carving.
Top and tail the leeks then chop into 1.5 cm rounds. Heat a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan and sauté for 12-15 minutes, stirring often, until soft. Add a generous pinch of sea salt half way through. Once cooked, allow to cool.
Next, make the white sauce. Gently heat your milk in a saucepan until hot but not boiling; meanwhile, melt your butter in a separate saucepan over a medium heat, and once melted add the flour and whisk. ‘Cook out’ the flour for 2 minutes, stirring constantly - this will do away with any raw flour taste. Add the hot milk a third at a time, whisking well between each addition to remove lumps. Season generously with salt and pepper, and cook your white sauce for a final 3 minutes, just until it thickens well and it’s starting to simmer. Turn off the heat.
Grate the cheddar and parmesan, and very finely chop the wild garlic leaves.
Stir the chopped wild garlic, ⅔ ‘s of the grated cheese, 1 heaped tablespoon of cream cheese, and all the chicken jus through the white sauce. (Reserve 1 tablespoon of cream cheese and ⅓ of the grated cheese for the topping).
Assess the texture of your white sauce, it should be the texture of double cream. If you think it needs a splash of water to loosen, add this now (it’s better a little runnier than too stiff). Allow the sauce to cool if you aren’t cooking immediately after layering.
If you are cooking right away, preheat the oven to 180C. Chop or tear your roast chicken into bite size pieces and weigh out 600g.
Layer things up in your chosen lasagne dish: sautéed leeks, chicken, white sauce, lasagne, repeat. This recipe will likely make 3 layers, but this will slightly depend on the size and depth of your dish, so continue layering until all the ingredients have been used up.
Scatter the remaining cheese and a few dollops of cream cheese on the top. Bake in a preheated oven for 45-60 minutes, or until it’s golden and bubbling on top, and a knife can pierce through the pasta layers easily.
Allow the lasagne to rest for 10 minutes before serving!
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