Le Pot
I use this is a lot during these cooler months. I love cooking whole chickens in it, and diced beef, and risotto, and soup, and bolognese sauce. It’s a great pot for cooking a lot of different things and if you have a spare $294 you can get one from Peter’s of Kensington on sale at the moment (rrp $469). I know that sounds like a hideous amount of money but remember – it’s all in the cost per use. I reckon I’ve got mine down to a dollar a go and that’s only taken me ten years. Yeah, that doesn’t really work, does it. Ask me again in another ten years.
Tonight I’m going to make what I think is one of the most delicious (and easy) ways to cook a whole chicken. The hardest part about this recipe, really, is carving up the chook afterwards, but the breast meat pulls so easily off the rib cage and the legs/thighs fall away from the body in such a way that you don’t actually need to understand the anatomy of the chicken. I think that’s what put me off roasting chickens for so long – not knowing how to carve the thing once it was cooked. Turns out it’s really not that hard, especially if you’ve got two kids who’ll share a breast, a husband who wants the other one, and you’re happy (very happy) to have a drumstick and a thigh.
Skye Gyngell’s Pot-Roasted Chicken with Sage & Butternut Pumpkin
1 free-range organic chicken
1 lemon, halved
1 small bunch of sage
3 fresh bay leaves
2tbsp mild extra-virgin olive oil
2 red onions, peeled and quartered
5 cloves of garlic, peeled but left whole
1 butternut squash, peeled and chopped into rough chunks
2 tins of good-quality chopped tomatoes
2tbsp crème fraîche
Sea-salt and freshly ground black pepper
Start by generously seasoning the chicken all over. Insert the lemon, half of the sage and one of the bay leaves into it (having first removed the little pillows of fat found just inside the cavity).
Place the casserole dish on a medium heat and pour in the olive oil. When it’s hot and slightly smoking, put the chicken in and brown lightly all over. This will take a little bit of time. Turn the chicken every now and then to make sure it goes an even, golden brown all over. Once brown, remove it from the pan and set aside.
Pour off the excess oil, add the onions, season with a pinch of salt and cook until tender. This should take about 5 minutes. Next add the garlic and the rest of the sage and bay leaves. Cook for a further 5 minutes, then add the squash.
Add the tomatoes and stir once or twice, then return the chicken to the pan, so that it nestles among the vegetables. Put the lid on, turn down the heat to medium-low and cook for about 45 minutes. The breasts do not need to be completely submerged in the liquid; they will happily steam cook – and remain all the more tender for it.
Once the chicken is cooked, add the crème fraîche and adjust the seasoning. It should be slightly sweet, sagey and very comforting in flavour. At home we eat this dish with farro or creamy mashed potato, and a simple green salad dressed with olive oil and lemon.
Yum! I have the pot but have never cooked a whole chicken it. Will be trying this one.
I plan to buy a Le Creuset pot or three when I move house and have more room. MMMMM roast chicken!
I have the exact same pot! I love mine. For people in the US, I got mine at TJ Maxx for $150 for the 5.5 quart size. Technically, it is a “second” but I really can’t figure out why.
@Kathy – I wear thin latex gloves when I’m handling raw chicken. It freaks me out a bit too. But a roast chicken is sooo easy. Maybe I should do a video and prove it to you?
Is that a Le Creuset!? Love ‘em, but they’re *INSANELY* expensive here. Yet another thing on my *will buy when am settled* list.
Again, love your little thumbnail photos of the process. I’ve only roasted a chicken a couple of times and, I don’t know, there’s something about handling that raw chicken that freaks me out. Turkeys don’t bother me but chickens, they make me think of babies. I know, obviously I have issues but, they just creep me out. But I have absolutely no problem eating one (that someone else has cooked).