By: J.Patterson
That sounds delicious because it is—Bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, soaked overnight in cultured buttermilk and apple peels, roasted low and slow until the meat practically falls off the bone. It’s one of our castle signatures: unfussy, super flavourful, and fit for a feast, good company, and a lotta finger-licking at the end.
In some way, shape, or form, this recipe has been with us for years — tweaked, tested, shared, and cooked again for nearly every kind of gathering you can imagine. It’s our take on heritage Polish cooking: simple ingredients, used with intention, to yield absolutely delish results.
That means, first and foremost, the ingredients need to be top shelf, since there’s so few of them.
We generally source our chicken from Lipowe Wzgórze, a small farm in southeastern Poland with over 400 years of tradition. Their birds spend their days outdoors, moving freely and eating naturally — and you can taste the difference. When you start with this kind of quality, you want to treat the ingredients with the respect they deserve.
Buttermilk (or natural kefir, if that’s what’s in your fridge) is full of lactic acid — one of the most magical tenderisers in the kitchen. I’ll likely write a whole post about it someday; we use buttermilk and kefir from a local, organic dairy, in just about everything from pancakes and biscuits to salad dressings and dishes like this. Here, it softens the meat perfectly while seasoning it from the inside out.
Oh, and here’s the best bit: it also helps you get some of the crispiest golden skin ever. That’s because the natural sugars and proteins in the buttermilk or kefir cling to the surface of the chicken, and once exposed to high heat, the skin becomes golden and shatteringly crisp. Just make sure you pat the chicken really dry before roasting — that’s the secret to the colour and the crunch.
Cultured dairy products like natural buttermilk and kefir have been part of Eastern European and Central Asian cooking for centuries — these beverages trace their story back to the Caucasus — and today, Poland is the world’s second-largest producer of kefir next to Russia.
In my opinion, it deserves a permanent place in every modern Polish kitchen. It’s a superfood and a super flavour enhancer.
Apples, meanwhile, have been grown in Poland for nearly 800 years. Today they’re the country’s symbolic fruit, and Poland is the EU’s largest producer. Out here in the countryside, just about every home has its own trees, and every old country road is lined with wild apple varieties. We have a few older ones ourselves — szara reneta and papierówki — and their peels bring aromatic sweetness and soft acidity that lift this dish beautifully. Together with the buttermilk, they create chicken that’s juicy, deeply flavourful, and dare I say - aromatic.
In any case, this is the kind of dish you want to tear into. The kind you eat outdoors with friends. The kind where everyone licks their fingers afterward. Ideally under apple trees, with the late-day sun dipping low and a bowl of cider passed around with apple slices, orange, and cinnamon.
And if by some miracle there are leftovers (I doubt it), pick the meat off the bone, tuck it into an airtight container, and make a chicken pita or sandwich the next day. Truly the stuff of legend.
But, there probably won’t be any leftovers.
When we first started hosting small, private groups at the castle, we had this idea that dinner could be more than just a meal. We wanted something celebratory — something worthy of the setting. Over time, that idea evolved into what is now our signature feast: long tables dressed in stoneware and candlelight, platters carried out one by one, and dishes rooted in comfort, seasonality, and old-world hospitality.
The recipes behind these feasts were shaped through much curiosity and many late nights — cookbooks spread open, old texts underlined, stories from farmers, conversations with producers, cultural notes, trial and error, and plenty of tasting. The goal was never to invent something new, but to understand what the food may have been like here back in the day and to embrace what matters to us now.
Because there’s so much more to the Polish table than the familiar, everyday plates — the pierogi, the pork cutlets, the milk-bar canteen dishes — and that’s the Poland we cook toward.
The result? Food that feels just as at home on a Polish kitchen table in a country house, manor, or castle in the 1920s as it does today.
Makes enough for 6 - 8 servings, or 4 - 6 and some leftovers
Time: 12–24 hours marinating (hands-off) + ~20 minutes prep + 1 hour roasting
Chicken
6-8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 1.5–2.2 kg or 3.3–4.8 lbs total)
Marinade
500 ml cultured buttermilk (or natural kefir)
Peels from 2 apples (organic if possible, washed well)
18–24 g sea salt (1–1.5 Tbsp)
Freshly ground black pepper
5-10 ml (1-2 tsp) Dijon mustard
Optional (for extra aroma and warmth):
2–3 minced garlic cloves
1 teaspoon harissa or smoked paprika
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
Make the Marinade:
In a large bowl, whisk the buttermilk or kefir with the salt, pepper, mustard, and any optional ingredients. Stir in the apple peels.
Marinate the Chicken:
Place the chicken in the bowl, spoon the marinade over it, and mix so everything is coated. Cover and refrigerate for 12–24 hours.
Prepare to Roast:
Take the chicken out of the fridge 1 hour before cooking.
Remove it from the marinade and pat very dry (this helps the skin get crispy).
Season lightly with a little more salt and pepper.
Place the apple peels under the chicken pieces on the tray — they won’t burn this way, and they’ll still add their aroma as the chicken roasts.
Roast Low & Slow:
Heat the oven to 150–160°C (300–325°F).
Place the chicken skin-side up on a tray lined with parchment.Cover lightly with foil.
Roast for 45–60 minutes, until tender and cooked through.
Crisp the Skin:
Remove the foil. Turn the oven up to 240–250°C (460–480°F) or use the broiler/grill.
Roast for 5–10 minutes, or until the skin is golden and crisp.
Rest & Serve:
Let the chicken rest for 5–10 minutes, then serve!
For a feast-style presentation, pile all the chicken onto a large stoneware or vintage platter.
If you want to take it to the next level (and we often do), give it a light spritz of apple cider vinegar — we keep ours in little apothecary spray bottles. It brightens everything instantly.
Finish with a pinch of flaky sea salt, a handful of fresh herbs (lovage or thyme are perfect), and a few thin slices of fresh apple or peel for aroma and eye appeal.
