Chicken fricassee with braised cucumber

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 1 chicken (corn-fed chicken), 1000 g, ready to cook
• 2 carrots
• 5 stalks of celery – green
• 1 stalk(s) leek
• 1 lemon(s), the juice
• olive oil
• Sea salt, coarse
• Salt
• pepper
• 100 ml sparkling wine, semi-dry
• 2 cucumbers (country cucumbers), approx. 500 g
• 6 tbsp peas, frozen
• 3 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp Flour, heaped
• 1 cup of sweet cream
• Sparkling wine, semi-dry

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Total time approx. 30 minutes

Clean, wash, and roughly dice or chop the vegetables. Mix half of the lemon juice, olive oil, coarse salt, and diced vegetables well. Season the mixture with pepper. Stuff the chicken with this mixture, setting the rest of the vegetable mixture aside. Seal the chicken’s openings. Salt and pepper the chicken on all sides. Line a roasting pan generously with aluminum foil. Spread the remaining vegetables on top and add the chicken. Pour over the sparkling wine. Seal the aluminum foil tightly. Cook in a preheated oven at 160 degrees Celsius for approx. 70-80 minutes. Remove the chicken from the aluminum foil, remove the bones, and cut into bite-sized pieces if necessary. Reserve the stock (strain). Wash the cucumbers well (leave the skin on), quarter them lengthwise, remove the seeds, and cut into 1 cm wide pieces. Melt the butter. Sauté the cucumbers in it. Cover and simmer in its own liquid for 5 minutes, then add the peas and simmer for another 2 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over the mixture to thicken. Deglaze with the cream, the reserved stock, a dash of sparkling wine, and lemon juice, and simmer briefly until a creamy sauce forms. Finally, stir in the meat and season with salt and pepper.