This rustic dish feels like you should be serving it to a tribe of cold weather truffle hunters in Northern Italy – slow cooked and aromatic, it fills your house all day with the wonderful smells of lemon and chicken, leaving you free to get on with life.

You can take this casserole out of the slow cooker and pop it onto a root vegetable mash, wild rice or spelt, but today it found itself being stirred through al dente pappardelle, coating the ribbons with the glossy, golden sauce.

I use the slow cooker to take the pressure off standing over it all day and it leaves the chicken shredding apart and tender. The addition of walnuts gives a great texture as well as a bang of Omega-3’s.

This recipe is a double quantity, serving 4/6 for supper and leaving another for the freezer.

When all is ready to serve, cook the pappardelle to packet instructions al dente and the last minute or so, throw some broccoli florets into the water for colour and goodness.

Nutty Lemon Chicken – Serves 4/6 twice

3 tbsp coconut oil

8/12 chicken thigh fillets, seasoned with salt and freshly ground pepper

2 onions, chopped finely

2″ fresh ginger, peeled and grated

2 x tbsp wholemeal flour

850ml beef stock

100g walnuts pieces

1 x star anise

1 x lemon’s worth grated zest

1 x lemon’s juice

2 x tbsp black treacle

1 x head broccoli florets

Heat the coconut oil in a frying pan and colour off the chicken portions until lightly golden 2 or 3 at a time. Add to the slow cooker basin as you go.

In the same pan, add the onions and cook gently until soft. Add the ginger and flour, stirring until well mixed. Gradually add the beef stock stirring well all the time until it thickens and glosses.

Stir in the nuts, star anise, lemon and treacle and pour the whole sauce over the chicken into the slow cooker.

Cook on low for at least 4 hours – but it won’t spoil if longer.

Serve as you like, over what you like on the day. If you are going for the pasta option, shred the chicken fillets before you stir it all through.

Cold weather heaven!