Comfort Food Friday

Happy Friday! Today I am sharing my recipe for Chicken In A Pot. It is a very easy, one pot dinner that is a crowd favorite in my house. It stems from a recipe I saw in Food & Wine Magazine. I have my own "system" that I follow whenever I try a new recipe that sounds interesting to me. I first follow the recipe exactly as written and try it. I then decide one, do I like it enough to make it again? And two, should I/could I change it up so that I (or members of my family) like it better?

Here is my "changed up" version of Chicken In A Pot:

recipe link

Now, the recipe in pictures:

Here are the ingredients that you will need.

Once the chicken is cleaned and resting on a plate, chop the carrots into sticks.

Then, chop up the onions. I cut wide slices and then quarter them. The onions get so soft during cooking that you want the pieces to be on the large side.

Zest the lemon.

Grate the garlic and then add the tarragon to the mixture.

Squeeze the lemons. The two lemons should produce between 2/3 and 3/4 cups of lemon juice.

Heat the oil in the Dutch oven on high.

Add the chicken upside down. The "upside down chicken" is a joke in our house because the first time I ever made a whole chicken for John I cooked it upside down and I had no idea. It looked fine to me! John thought it was hilarious. I used to get rotisserie chickens for easy dinners as a working mom - SORRY (not sorry).

After the skin is browned, flip the chicken over to the "right side". It can be tricky to flip it because the skin sticks a bit and the chicken is slippery. I recommend having a utensil in each hand to aid in the flipping (tongs, spatulas, forks or whichever combination thereof works for you).

Remove from heat and sprinkle the lemon zest, garlic, and tarragon around the chicken.

Add the vegetables.

Pour in the lemon juice.

Add the water.

Bring to a boil. Cover. Place pot in the oven.

After the chicken has been cooking in the oven for 1 1/4 hours, add the rice. Stir the rice in so that is covered by the liquid. Place the lid back on the pot and continue cooking in the oven for thirty minutes. There is a lot of liquid, even if you add three cups of rice, the liquid will not be totally absorbed when done cooking.

Here is the chicken right after coming out of the oven. Let the chicken stand, uncovered for fifteen minutes before serving. You can see some of the cooked rice peeking through and how translucent the onions are. The rice will continue to absorb some of the liquid.

The chicken falls apart as soon as you start pulling at pieces with two forks to place it on a platter. The chicken is easy to dismantle and remove its bones.

This is how the rice and vegetables look in the pan after the chicken is removed. Serve the rice and vegetables with a slotted spoon. They are delicious and tender, richly flavored with the lemon, garlic, tarragon, and chicken.

Bon appétit. It really is delicious.

Happy weekend,

Kerry