1 ½ lbs Brown or cremini Mushrooms

½ lb Maitake (hen-of-the-woods) mushrooms

3 large carrots

A stalk or two of celery

3 large onions

A few sprigs of lemon thyme

1 bay leaf

2 quarts homemade chicken stock

4 cloves garlic

1 bottle red wine (pinot or a relatively low-tannin variety is best)

½ cup cognac

½ lb bacon, cut into lardons

4 backyard chicken leg quarters

4 backyard chicken “airline breasts”

1 small bunch parsley

Bring the wine to a boil and add a teaspoon or so of kosher salt and the bay leaf.

Using a lighter, set the wine vapors afire and let cook for a few minutes to burn and boil off some of the alcohol.

Marinade the chicken overnight in the wine.

The next day, render the fat from the lardons. Save the fat, also save the browned and crispy lardon

Brown the chicken (in batches) well in the bacon fat. If they’re happy chickens, they’ll throw off a lot of chicken fat. Feel free to remove some from the pan as it goes.

If they’re backyard chickens, the skin should already be removed at slaughter time (to render for fat) but no worries if not–the skin will likely shrink and curl up a lot.

Once fully browned, deglaze the pan with the wine from the marinade.

Move to your largest dutch oven, add 1/2 the chicken stock and bring to a simmer.

Meanwhile, wash and quarter the brown mushrooms, and wash and pull apart the hen-of-the-woods.

Cut the onions, carrots, and celery into large chunks.

In a separate pan, while the chicken has begun simmering–cook the mushrooms until they give up their water and begin to brown. Add the carrots, onions, and a bit of salt and keep browning.

When everything is just browned around the edges, add the thyme, turn the fire off and add the ½ cup of cognac. Get the lid ready, light it on fire and cook off the alcohol from the cognac.

When the flames die down, add the rest of the stock, deglaze and scrape up any and all browned bits from the pan.

Add to the now-simmering chicken, and stir to combine.

Put in a 300 degree oven and cook, covered, until chicken is tender. For five-year-old backyard chickens, this will literally be about 6 hours. Keep a careful eye on the liquid level.

After chicken is tender, remove from liquid.

Strain the sauce and separate the fat from the liquid (there will probably be a lot of fat).

Remove as many of the mushrooms from the strained bits as you can reasonably do and add back to the chicken.

Puree the sauce with a blender till smooth, re-add to the chicken and mushrooms, add a bit of water if needed to thin, and keep the whole thing warm until time for service.

At service, garnish with freshly chopped parsley. Serve over roasted potatoes.