Braised Chicken Thighs with Pumpkin and Sage Mash

Bring a 2 saucepans of water to the boil, add the stock to one and salt the other.

Finely chop the onion, rosemary and sage.

Cut the skin off the pumpkin and roughly chop.

Add the pumpkin to the salted boiling water and boil until the pumpkin is tender and ready to mash. (15-20mins)

Season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper.

In a large frying pan over medium-high heat, heat half of the oil. Then add the chicken thighs and cook until brown on both sides.

Transfer the chicken to a plate. Pour off any excess fat from the pan and add the remaining oil.

Add to the pan the onion, rosemary, half of the sage, bay leaves and cloves. Saute all of the ingredients until the onion is softened, about 3-4 minutes.

Stir the tomato paste into the onion mixture. Then add the chicken stock* and stir.

Season the sauce with salt and pepper and bring to the boil.

Reduce the heat to medium-low heat and simmer until the sauce begins to thicken slightly.

Add the chicken to the sauce and continue to simmer until the chicken is cooked through. (5-10mins)

Drain the pumpkin.

Add a little olive oil to the saucepan that had the pumpkin and return back to the heat.

Add the remaining sage and cook until crisp.

Add the pumpkin back to the saucepan with the sage.

Mash the pumpkin until smooth.

Season the mash with salt and pepper.

Distribute the pumpkin mash among serving plates.

When cooked through, serve the chicken and sauce aside the mash.