Chicken

Start by lightly frying the chicken thighs and placing them into a suitable baking tray. Pour in the chicken stock and add the bay leaves. Fine dice the carrots and add them to the chicken.
Cover with baking parchment and foil. Bake @ 190° for 1.5 hours
Once the chicken is cooked, remove from the stock and use 1 litre of the remaining stock for the sauce.

Sauce

Finely dice the onions and leeks. Add the butter to a heavy based sauce pan and once it starts to melt, add in the onion and leeks. Slowly cook for 5 minutes before adding the flour and cooking out until pale white round the edges.
Gradually whisk in the chicken stock and bring to a simmer. Remove from the heat and whisk in the grated Gruyère and egg yolks. Season with salt and pepper.
Chop the chicken, place into a pan and fold the sauce through. Keep warm

Mushroom

Whisk the eggs and milk together in a bowl. Place the flour and breadcrumbs into two separate bowls. Start coating the outside of the mushrooms with flour. Then dip into the egg wash mixture and straight into the breadcrumbs.
These can then be baked for 6-8 minutes @ 180°.

Perfect Poached Egg

Place a pot of water on to boil and add a dash of vinegar.
To poach the eggs, bring the water to a simmer and swirl it around with a large chef spoon in one direction so it is like a whirlpool. As the water spins, drop in your cracked eggs one at a time.
These will take 90 – 120 seconds for a runny yolk centre.
Remove and let excess water drip off.

Fill the mushroom with the chicken mixture and top with the poached egg.

Chefs Tips

• Eggs can be pre poached and put straight into ice water allowing you to make a large batch that you can drop back into boiling water for a minute to bring back to temperature.
• This works just as well swapping the chicken with ham hock or even smoked haddock.