Bring a large pan of water to boil

Add the carrot, leek, onion, celery and garlic

Cover the pan and simmer for 45 minutes then take off the heat and remove the chicken

Remove the bones and discard. Dice the chicken into bitesize pieces

Take off the heat and stir in 600mls of the strained stock

Bring to the boil stirring all the while, then let simmer for 10 minutes

Now to add your finishing variation:

To make the mushroom fricassee, melt the butter in a pan and fry off the shallots until golden

Add the wine, bring to boil then reduce by half

Stir the mushrooms, shallots & wine and soured cream into the base recipe sauce

Add in the chicken and heat through. Season to taste

To make the asparagus fricassee, simmer the trimmed asparagus and peas in lightly salted water for around 5 minutes

Drain them then add to the base sauce with the chicken

Heat through, stir in the cream and season to taste

CHEATS VERSION: Use pre-cooked, chopped chicken. Cook some chopped vegetables of choice in 600mls chicken stock. Strain the vegetables and set aside. Add the stock to the butter/flour (roux) mixture with 4 tbsp cream, then add back in the chicken and vegetables. An even bigger cheat is to just use a can or two of cream of chicken or mushroom soup, in place of the stock/cream mixture. I've never seen a dairy-free one yet though but I do have both of those recipes posted, free-from of course....