Chicken Fricassee with Green Asparagus and Mushrooms

This chicken stew is one of my comfort foods that I cook when I want to feel like home back in Germany. It's called fricassee in Germany and it's a dish that I have never had at restaurants. To me, fricassee has to be home-made, no matter what. I love the straightforward taste of chicken rounded with asparagus and mushrooms and spiced  with capers. It's still a light dish, as all its ingredients are light and the gravy contains just a little butter and flour.
It takes some time to cook the chicken, but after that it's pretty quick and can be made well in advance. It's served with rice or boiled potatoes.
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CHICKEN FRICASSEE WITH GREEN ASPARAGUS AND MUSHROOMS

1 whole chicken (ca. 1200g)

1 carrot

1 small leek

1 small celery root

bunch of parsley

salt

1 tablespoon butter

1 heaped tablespoon of wholemeal flour
300ml chicken broth

250g mushrooms (quartered)

300g fresh green asparagus (or 1 can of green asparagus), cut into 1-inch pieces

2 tablespoons capers

Serves 2-3

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Wash the chicken under running water and put it in a big heavy-bottomed pot. Cut celery roots, carrot and leek into big chunks and add to the pot. Add the parsley. Fill up with about 2 liters of water. Salt generously. Bring to the boil. Once it boils, turn down the heat and let simmer for about 45 minutes to an hour. Take the chicken out. Drain the broth and keep it. Discard the vegetables. Let the chicken cool. Once it's cooled down, tear of all big chunky meat from the bones.

In another heavy-bottomed pot, let the butter melt. Once it's melted whisk in the flour. Slowly add the chicken broth bit by bit, altogether about 300ml or up to 500ml of you like it with lots of sauce. Keep on whisking. Once the sauce thickens, add the mushrooms and the raw asparagus. Cook them in the sauce until crisp to to tender (if you use canned asparagus, add it at the very last, as the canned ones are usually quite soft and dissolve quickly). Add the chicken chunks and the capers and cook for another 5-7 minutes. Ready to serve.