By nature, fennel is an herb which form a bulb-like structure. Primarily used in Mediterranean to add flavor to fish dishes, they are also grown in much of the Asian sub-continent. The dialects in places where it is grown has given it variety of names.



Compared to wild fennel seeds, cultivated fennel is used in culinary purposes.

The cultivated fennel seeds are used for a variety of purposes. It is best to have it cooked with chicken for tenderness.

In this article I'm going to show you how to cook a chicken dish and add fennel to it.

The result is going to be awesome. And the smell? Superb! Simply put, the combination of taste, aroma and looks of the dish will be... wow!

Obviously when preparing any dish, the ingredients need to be good. Especially, when talking about a chicken dish being prepared with fennel, the basic ingredients would of course be chicken and fennel and other "secret ingredients" that I have learned through out the years .

With good chicken available in abundance in the market, I recommend the following two options:

1) Use all the drumsticks and thighs when you are cooking the dish as these will brilliantly add flavor to fennel. Cooking time of the dish can be reduced to a good 10 minutes if you remove the drumstick from high at the joint.

2) Use the sharpest knife that you have to cut the whole portion of the chicken. If you do this, ensure that you cut the drumsticks and thighs as well so that it will be cooked in no time. I don't like the chicken to be dried out. I highly recommend that you remove the breast early to prevent this from happening.

-- Fennel Roasted Chicken --

~ 1 whole (about 3-pound) chicken, cut up, or about 3 pounds drumsticks and thighs

~ 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, or as needed

~ 2 bulbs fennel, trimmed and cut into 1/4 inch thick slices

~ Chopped fresh parsley leaves for garnish

~ Lemon wedges

~ Salt and freshly ground black pepper

(1) Heat oven to 400F. Drizzle bottom of shallow roasting pan or baking sheet with about half the olive oil and cover it with a layer of the fennel.

(2) Overlap pieces if necessary but use whole pan. Drizzle remaining oil over fennel and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

(3) Roast about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, cut up chicken if necessary and sprinkle the pieces with salt and pepper.

(4) Top fennel with the chicken parts, skin side up. Ideally, you'll have a layer of fennel pretty much covered by a layer of chicken, but it's fine if some of the fennel roasts uncovered.

(5) Spoon some of the oil from bottom of pan over chicken. Roast about 15 minutes, then baste chicken with pan drippings and rotate the pan. If necessary, adjust oven temperature so chicken browns but does not burn.

The chicken will be done in about 30 minutes. Serve each piece with some fennel and a little of the pan juices spooned over, garnished with parsley and a lemon wedge.

Dinner is ready! Bring everyone and enjoy.