Saturday, November 7, 2009

Oven Braised Chicken

A couple months ago my sister-in-lawesome gave me a Williams-Sonoma cookbook chock full of mouthwatering recipes for all my favorite meats. She said she didn't think she was accomplished enough to attempt these recipes, but I think she could do it. Anyway, I'm glad she felt like she couldn't handle it, because this is wayyyy too fabulous to miss out on. November's meals are 100% out of this cookbook.

Oven Braised Chicken with Vegetables
Adapted from Williams-Sonoma Meat & Poultry cookbook

One roasting chicken, 3-5 pounds
One yellow onion, halved
One head of iceberg lettuce, cored and sliced lengthwise*
Two carrots, peeled and chopped
One green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
Two tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
Half a cup dry white wine
Half a cup chicken stock

Preheat the oven to 375F.

Chop your onion in half.

Peel and chop your carrots.

Seed and chop your bell pepper.

Slice your lettuce.

Rub the chicken's cavity with salt and place the onion halves inside. Place the lettuce, carrots, and bell peppers in the bottom of a heavy oven-proof pot.

Rub the outside of the chicken with butter, and then season with salt and pepper. Put the chicken in the pot, breasts up.


(That's not actually butter on my chicken, that's margarine. I fully support you using butter, but you know, I'm lactose intolerant. So I choose to forgo it.)

Add the wine and the chicken stock. Cover and put in the oven for an hour. Remove the lid and continue cooking until a thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the thigh away from the bone reads 170F, about 30 more minutes.

Transfer the chicken and vegetables to a platter and spoon the juices over the top.


This was good--tender and moist--but there wasn't a ton of flavor. And the lettuce got really gross after being cooked for 90 minutes. So next time I make this, I think I'll skip the lettuce (and maybe the pepper, too, since Tim doesn't like them) and chunk up a potato instead.

Serves four.
Takes about 20 minutes of prep, plus 90 minutes cook time.
Difficulty: 1

* I actually chose to use Boston lettuce, because my market sells it in tiny heads. There's just no way we can use a whole head of lettuce before it goes bad. And seriously, if I'd used an entire head of iceberg, I don't know how I'd have fit the chicken in the pot. It was a tight squeeze with all those veggies!

2 comments:

Summer said...

I was sitting here deciding what I should eat for dinner and thought... hmm I should make something Jessica cooked for us before. So I came to this blog to gander at the selection. While it won't be the giant chicken cause god forbidden I do it wrong and I waste a whole chicken :/ I did, however, right down a much needed grocery list with meals that I have selected out of your blog :)

I'll let you know how my little cooking adventure goes :D

Thanks my dear for this!

jessiker said...

Oh, I'm so glad you found some stuff to make! Call me if you run into any problems or have any questions or can't find the right ingredients and need to make a substitution or anything. Good luck!