Chicken Lollipops are not only fun to eat, they are fun to prepare as well. Remember that the outcome depends on the quality of the product you started out with. So, get organic, free-range chicken drumsticks for this recipe.

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 8 chicken drumsticks (2 per person)
• 8 rations of smoked bacon
• 2 Granny Smith apples
• Chicken stock (see below)
• Maple Syrup.

Method

Start preparations at least an hour and a half before your planned serving time.

1. The hardest part of this recipe is actually lollipopping the drumsticks. Chop off the (foot) end of the bone, and gently push up the meat to the thicker part of the drumstick. You will run into some tendons, which you should try to remove. In order to keep the meat from moving back, I often tie a piece of kitchen string around the bone, so the meat cannot slide back over it.
2. Poach the lollipops in hot but not boiling chicken stock for about 25 minutes.
3. Take out the lollipops, let them cool down slightly and wrap each lollipop with a slice of smoked bacon.
4. Gently fry the lollipops in a skillet with some butter or oil, until they start browning. Rotate regularly in order to get color on each side.
5. Cut the two apples in four slices each; fry these slices in the skillet until they start browning.
6. Lower the heat. Now pour a little bit of maple syrup on each lollipop and fry them a little longer. The maple syrup with start caramelizing quickly. Be careful not to burn the caramel; add some water if necessary.   
7. Serve with a side vegetable, such as green string beans (in my case, I parboiled the beans, and then fried them with some bacon to continue the theme).

For the poaching, you can use a ready-made stock or make your own. I generally combine the two; starting out with a chicken stock cube, and adding herbs and spices like crushed lemon grass, parsley, chilli and freshly ground black pepper. 

The lollipops are ready to go! The apple slices are about 1 cm (0.4 inch) thick.

Maple syrup is the luxury ingredient here. Don't use imitation if you don't have to.

Serve with a side of vegetables. Enjoy!