If you love chicken, Diana Henry’s A Bird In The Hand is a wonderful cookery book, full of amazing chicken recipes such as this one. Read our review of Bird In The Hand, here.
This recipe for Chicken with Pumpkin, Cream and Gruyère blew me away. As you can see, it’s such a simple recipe and yet I would never have thought to combine chicken and pumpkin, nor to cook the combination so simply in cream flavoured with garlic and grated cheese. Be warned, this is a rich dish, so small portions will be plenty. A crisp vinaigrette-dressed green salad is my perfect accompaniment.
We scaled the recipe down by half, used chicken thighs (which I much prefer to breasts) and butternut squash (as regular pumpkin wasn’t available) and switched the two hard cheeses for close cousins we had on hand. We also decided to cut the thighs into three pieces before frying, rather than after as in the recipe.
Full, original recipe provided below.
Diana Henry’s Chicken with Pumpkin, Cream and Gruyère
Ingredients
- 1 kg pumpkin or butternut squash (unprepared weight)
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 8 skinless boneless chicken thighs or breasts
- 400 ml double cream
- 1 clove garlic
- 25 g grated Gruyère
- 25 g grated Parmesan
- salt
- pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200 C / 400 F.
- Peel and deseed the pumpkin and cut it into wedges. Put the wedges into a roasting tin, brush with olive oil, season and roast in the oven for about 30 minutes, or until completely tender (and even slightly caramelised).
- Now put the squash into a gratin or other ovenproof dish, one that is big enough to accommodate the chicken too.
- Meanwhile, cook the chicken. Simply season it all over, heat one and a half tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan and sauté the chicken on both sides until golden and cooked through, eight to ten minutes.
- Cut each piece into three. Add the chicken to the pumpkin.
- Heat the cream with the garlic until it’s boiling, take off the heat, season and pour over the chicken and pumpkin. Sprinkle on both cheeses and bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
- The dish should be bubbling and golden. Serve.
- You need something to cut the richness so a salad of bitter leaves is good. Children like it with pasta, but I prefer brown rice or another nutty whole grain.
You may also enjoy:
- Nazima’s Roasted Chicken Legs with Za’atar and Pomegranate
- Margot’s Chicken de Volaille in Chestnut Mushroom Sauce
- Sally’s post about talking preserving with Diana Henry
If you decide to buy this book after reading our content, please consider clicking through our affiliate link, located within the post and in the footnote below.
A Bird in the Hand by Diana Henry is published by Mitchell Beazley. Kavey Eats received a review copy from the publisher.
Please leave a comment - I love hearing from you!22 Comments to "Diana Henry’s Chicken with Pumpkin, Cream & Gruyère"
Some gorgeous sound recipes there, chicken with pumpkin looks delicious! Great post!
Heather
Thank you, yes such an appealing recipe.
Oh this sounds like the ultimate comfort food – all that cheese and cream! Mmmmm!!!! 🙂
Yes exactly so!!
Incredibly tempting with all that gooey creaminess. Amazing.
Yes, can’t go wrong really! Very delicious!
Her books have been on my wish list for ever. I really ought to get round to buying them.
This one is one chicken lovers will get great use out of!
That looks delicious Kavey! I know I could enjoy it, especially that it has gruyere cheese in it and pumpkin, I love pumpkins! 🙂
Thank you for mentioning my chicken de volaille, much appreciated.
My pleasure and yes, I’m sure you’d love this recipe!
Looks really good – great comforting dish.
Yes, total comfort food!
Yes, another winner by Diana Henry. I love the shredded chicken with lentils and saffron dish, great for a family supper but also loving the look of the dishes that you’ve chosen.
I’m not a big lentil lover but so MANY of her recipes are bookmarked!
I already had this bookmarked on Amazon but it’s now moved up the list. Really can’t wait to cook from it. Thanks for the shout out.
You’re welcome, Sally, enjoy!
A friend of mine has this book and SWEARS by it. Glad you liked it too!
I do adore chicken and it’s so nice to have different ideas to try instead of the same old repeats!
I love Diana Henry recipes! What a great combination dish! Pinned and shared!
Yes not one I’d ever have thought of but so simple and it works so well!
This looks delicious I may make it for my husband when I can find pumpkin in the supermarkets
Works with butternut squash and also with sweet potato too. ❤️