Leftovers Followup: Poule Au Pot Ingredients

Hello again! In the Poule Au Pot post, I mentioned that you may end up with leftover vegetables, since most of those ingredients (leeks, celery, carrots, parsnips, turnips) are sold in bunches providing more than enough of each veggie type for one night's cook-up of poule au pot. If you have leftover chicken because you bought a value pack, it's like a free fricking meal! Here's what we did with our extra ingredients tonight!

1. Prep the chicken as you wish (I'm stuffing with goat cheese, and sprinkling on thyme, salt and pepper).

2. Chop the vegetables (except for the leeks) into about 2-inch chunks. Plop in a casserole/roasting dish and pour in just enough chicken stock to cover the bottom of the casserole. Cover with aluminum foil (or a real casserole cover, if you're fancy like that).

3. Pop chickies and veggies on the top oven rack at 375, and check for doneness in about 25 minutes. That's a pretty good mass cooking in the oven at one time, so don't be surprised if things still need 10-20 minutes more, depending on: how large an amount of leftover veggies you had; how big and how many your chicken breasts are; and how heavy your casserole/roasting dishes are.

Intermission: Play with your new camera.

Spouse grudgingly agrees to take a photo of less-photographed better half.

Tiffany-style lamp in bedroom.

Fabulous apron of fabulousness

purrrrrr

Another intermission option is to accidentally burn your forearm on the 375 degree oven when lifting the veggies out to check for doneness. Ouch. I mean, really. Ouch.

4. When chicken and vegetables are done, chow down. If one is done way before the other for some reason, no sweat off your back. Take it out, keep it covered, and pop back in for a sec before you feast.

Le yum yum for le cheap cheap! Le win-win.

Ali's Kitchen: Poule Au Pot

Bienvenue, mes choux! It's time for a foray into the French countryside with the classic poule au pot. Literally "chicken in a pot," this dish is parfait for Fall, and easy to make ahead for all-week eats. Allons-y! Here are the basics that will make at least 4-6 servings:

INGREDIENTS
4 pints of chicken stock (possibly more: enough to submerge the ingredients in a large, heavy pot)
2 leeks, just the whites and light-greens, halved crosswise and lengthwise (remember: leeks are dirtier than a teenage boy's imagination, so wash, wash, wash in all those little layers)
1 medium white onion, quartered
1 large turnip, peeled and quartered
2 parsnips, peeled and halved crosswise
2 carrots, peeled and halved crosswise
2 celery stalks, cut into 2-inch pieces
Salt & pepper to taste (start with no salt if you're using canned stock/broth)
Bouquet Garni: 3 parsley springs, 1 large bay leaf, 3 springs of thyme (1-2 tsp dried), 1 celery stalk cut in half. Tie all this together with kitchen twine (or the parsley, if it's a little old and not so crisp), or just throw it in there, and strain the broth when you're serving later, so you don't end up munching on the parsley or bay leaf.
Approx. 8 chicken pieces, or 3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cut into 2-inch chunks

PREPARATION
1. In your large pot, bring the chicken stock to a boil. If using boneless, skinless chicken breasts, boil your vegetables and Bouquet Garni for about 20 minutes, or until just slightly tender.





2. Add the chicken breasts, bring back to a boil, then reduce to a SIMMER (not boil, or the chicken will get tough), partially covered until the chicken is cooked through, about 5-10 minutes (this is obviously contingent on whether your chicken has bones, and/or how small the breast chunks are which you've cut; check doneness often so as not to overcook).

Serve in a shallow bowl with your favorite moisture-absorbing carbohydrate (for instance, a parbaked ciabatta loaf that needs to get out of your freezer before it's completely useless). Make sure everyone gets a little of everything in his or her bowl.

Le yum yum!

THIS RECIPE'S VERSATILITY MAKES IT GREAT!
* If you can't find "stock," just use broth.
* You can use whichever chicken parts you prefer. If using thighs, or parts from a whole chicken, boil these for about 10-20 minutes first, depending on their size, before you start cooking the veggies.
* The beauty of these particulary root vegetables is that they don't turn mushy like potatoes if you need to cook the chicken a little longer than you thought.
* If you don't have one big pot, you can cook your veggies in one pot and chicken in another, with a Bouquet Garni for each.



Steal a little of the vegetables' cooking liquid to add to the chicken's broth, for the parsnip, turnip and carrot flavor.
* You can prep the veggies ahead of time and cover, immersed in water:

This is particularly helpful if, say, your husband and his Playstation buddy are monopolizing the living room all afternoon and you are bored. Any excess water the veggies soak up during this time won't matter so much, since they're going to cook in liquid anyway.

* All ingredients and amounts are totally subjective. Need protein? Use more chicken. Veggie freak? Go hog wild. Don't like some of the root veggies listed below? Substitute others (just make sure to add them earlier or later in the cooking process, so they're not under or overcooked).

* You can use 1/2 to 1 chicken breast, and one of each vegetable type, and make this an easy dish for one. If you have to buy some of the veggies, like the leeks, carrots and celery, in bunches, you can refrigerate them and roast later in the week with sausage and mashed potatoes! Unfortunately, since you'll probably get way too much parsley to use before it goes bad, well...

Gives a whole new meaning to "Bouquet," doesn't it?

Post script: It is with much thanks that we bid adieu to our beloved Sony point-and-click and welcome to blogland our brand new Canon, hereafter christened Carlita Canon.

Hola.

Welcome, Carlita, and thanks to Tarot for being such a willing test subject for figuring out what the hell "aperture value" is.

Le meow meow.