In May 2026 Danny secured three tickets for the FA Cup final at Wembley — Chelsea versus Manchester City. We are a Chelsea family, which requires a certain resilience.

We checked into the Kaya Great Northern Hotel at King's Cross before the match — a Victorian railway hotel designed by Lewis Cubitt, who also built the station next door, opened in 1854 and still standing. The cooked breakfast the next morning was excellent — toasted sourdough, properly done. Also very expensive.

Chelsea lost.

On Sunday we collected the car in Milton Keynes — we'd parked there to train into London, which is both easier and considerably cheaper than driving into the city. We stopped at M&S on the way out. Danny had already taken the train home to Cleethorpes. Chris and I drove north to Ramsbottom.

By Sunday evening we were in the back garden, Jenny and the boys inside, a cast iron pan getting ripping hot in the Gozney Dome against the Lancashire stone wall. This is what I cooked. The best consolation dinner I know — creamy Dijon chicken thighs, deglazed with white wine, finished with cream and mustard off the heat.

A few days later Chris and I were back in London — Stamford Bridge this time, Chelsea versus Tottenham Hotspur. Chelsea won.

From the Gozney — Chris's Outdoor Kitchen in Ramsbottom

The Gozney Dome runs at temperatures a domestic oven can't approach. What this means in practice is a sear on chicken skin that sets in seconds rather than minutes — deeply coloured, properly rendered, with a fond building in the cast iron that a hob version simply won't produce. The cream sauce that comes at the end is built on that fond. It's why this dish tastes the way it does.

Chris cooks on his Gozney the way I cook at Casa Adora — by eye, by feel, by what looks right. There are no precise temperatures here. There's a hot pan, good chicken, and the kind of attention that produces a better result than any timer.

This is the first recipe in the From the Gozney series — part of my Wood-Fired Recipes collection — a collaboration between Chris in Ramsbottom and me at Casa Adora, where my own wood-fired dome oven arrives in November. Two ovens, two kitchens, one approach to cooking with fire.

Creamy Dijon Chicken Thighs — The Recipe

Serves 3

Ingredients

• 6 chicken thighs, bone-in, skin on
• 4 shallots, finely chopped
• 6 garlic cloves, crushed
• A small glass of dry white wine (approx. 100ml) — for deglazing
• 100ml single cream
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• Sea salt and black pepper
• Sourdough garlic bread, to serve

Method

Fire up the Gozney Dome and place a cast iron pan inside to get ripping hot. You want the pan as hot as the Gozney will give you — this is what delivers the sear that a domestic hob struggles to match.

Season the chicken thighs generously with sea salt and black pepper. Place them skin-side down in the hot pan and leave them — don't move them. The skin needs time to render and colour properly. Cook until the skin is deeply golden and the fat has rendered, then flip and cook through on the other side. Go by eye — when the thighs look done, they're done.

Towards the end of cooking, throw the shallots and crushed garlic into the pan. They'll cook in the chicken juices and fat, picking up all the colour and flavour from the pan.

Pull the pan out of the Gozney. Deglaze with the white wine, scraping up everything stuck to the bottom of the pan. Let it bubble and reduce briefly. Add the single cream and Dijon mustard and stir through, letting everything come together in the residual heat of the pan.

Taste, adjust the seasoning, and serve straight from the cast iron pan with sourdough garlic bread.

Notes

Tarragon would be the classic addition — a small handful stirred through with the cream transforms the sauce. It wasn't available in Ramsbottom on the day, which is how this cleaner version came to exist. If you have it, use it.

The Gozney Dome runs hot. Trust the pan, trust your eye, and don't rush the sear. The fond that builds in a screaming hot cast iron pan is where the sauce gets its depth.

This dish works on a domestic hob too — use the heaviest pan you have, get it as hot as you dare, and follow the same method. The Gozney gives it something extra, but the recipe holds up without it.

FOOTNOTE

This creamy Dijon chicken recipe is part of my Wood-Fired Recipes collection — cooking with fire from a Gozney Dome in Ramsbottom and an Alfarería Duero at Casa Adora.

It also forms part of my Chicken Recipes collection — a complete guide to cooking every cut, every style, from Casa Adora and the road.

Find more recipes and food adventures here.
Wonky photos, proper food, genuine adventures — The Flexible Chef