It’s that time of the year when I am again going to whine endlessly about the heat and how physically painful it is to cook. But I cook anyway. And that means the whining is nothing but whining. If some psychologists are to be believed, whining as a form of releasing frustration may actually be healthy. So, I’ll whine away, release all my pent-up frustrations about the summer heat which I cannot do anything about, then cook. That way, what needs to get done will get done and we won’t have to resort to canned meat loaf with its mysterious ingredients that may or may not include horse or carabao meat.
Okay, so it was darn hot at noon until sunset. So I chose to cook this chicken and potato dish because it required only three utensils — a pan, a chopping board and a knife — for a quick clean-up. This dish is also very light with no thick gravy nor creamy sauce. It isn’t short on flavor though, I assure you of that. I used celery salt and freshly ground black pepper, nothing more. If you substitute regular salt, the dish will still get cooked through but the richness in flavor won’t be the same.
Braised chicken and potatoes with rosemary
Ingredients
- 1 small chicken about 1 kg.
- celery salt as much or as little as your taste buds dictate
- pepper as much as you like
- 1 rasher belly bacon thinly sliced
- 3 to 4 potatoes cut into wedges
- 3 cloves garlic crushed
- 1 onion thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon dried rosemary
- 1/2 cup bone broth
Instructions
- Rinse the chicken and pat dry. Cut down the back, through the bone, to open up the chicken, butterfly-style. Rub generously with celery salt and pepper.
- Heat a cast iron (or other heavy) skillet. Add the bacon slices and cook over medium heat until the bottom of the pan is covered with melted bacon fat.
- Push the bacon slices to the sides of the pan. Turn up the heat. Arrange the chicken at the center, skin side down. Cook until the skin is lightly browned then flip over.
- Scatter the potato wedges around the chicken. Do the same with the garlic cloves and onion slices. Sprinkle the potatoes and onion slices with celery salt and pepper.
- Sprinkle the rosemary over the chicken and vegetables.
- Pour in the broth. When the broth starts to boil, turn the heat to low, cover the pan tightly and cook the chicken and potatoes for 30 to 35 minutes.
Keep pets hydrated during the hot summer months
I am so envious of your cast iron skillet! San mo nabili yan?
Gourdo’s. :)
Looks yummy! Mrs V, why don’t you make salads on hot days to save you cooking in the heat and wouldn’t they be nice and light to eat as well? Unless maybe salads are not your thing or Mr Speedy’s? Hate to think of you suffering over a hot stove when the weather is boiling hot! :-(
It’s me. I’m not a salad person. Not raw veggies anyway. We’re into one-pot meals now. You know, the kind where you throw everything in and there’s no stirring required? hehehe
Yeah, you and your one pot wonders! LOL. Well that’s a shame, because there are some really lovely salad recipes around that have beautiful dressings such as here for instance:
http://www.goodfood.com.au/good-food/cook/aggregate/salad-recipes-20121113-299rc.html
Beautiful rice or noodle or seafood or beef salads. Very refreshing and minimal slaving over hot stoves required! ;-P
Forgot to add another link: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/collections/salad+recipes
In case you want to check them out :-)
I think you misunderstood. I don’t like raw vegetables. Except cucumber and fresh herbs, and herbs are not exactly vegetables in the salad sense.
And I don’t think that’s a shame. I think that’s being smart enough not to jump into the salad bandwagon just to be “in”.
But that’s my point, sorry Mrs V, with all due respect. I was trying to say that salads don’t necessarily mean just plain old raw veggies anymore or bits of wilted lettuce or whatever. You can put anything in them. And I said that it’s a shame meaning if you misunderstood what I meant about salads and that’s why you don’t like them. By the way, I mentioned it not to be “in”, FYI I absolutely loathe and detest fads and go out of my way to not follow them. I was merely sincerely suggesting a healthy and light alternative for meals on hot and sticky days that’s all. I apologize if I didn’t communicate that properly. Cheers.
And that’s just my point — no matter what you add to raw leaves, they are still raw leaves. They can’t hide what they are nor can they pretend to be something they’re not.
There are salads I love (Japanese kani is one) — ones that have little or no raw leaves.
Plus, if you’re talking of convenience, to be able to add “a lot” to greens to make them palatable, then you need to cook too — fry bacon, make croutons, etc etc unless you’re okay with everything coming out of a box, which really negates the idea of smart eating.
And plus, putting on all those “add-ons” to a salad, you end up ingesting more calories than what you’d get from a Asian stir fry — which, by the way, will always have more depth in flavor and texture than green salad.
Ms. Connie
if i will use a fresh rosemary leaves should i have to increase the amount of it?
thanks
Yes, twice as much. :)
I cooked this for our dinner last night and it was a hit!
At first I was having a hard time finding the celery salt, going to all the groceries I frequent (pioneer center, cash n carry, rustans) to no avail. I finally went to Landmark in Makati but they didn’t have celery salt, only celery seeds. So I bought those and just made my own celery salt, and I’m glad I did because it would’ve been a totally different taste without it.
I added some carrots to the mix, though, and used only the leg-thigh parts, but it still tasted wonderful!
Thanks Ms. Connie!
Now, that’s it! That’s cooking. I’m out of celery salt too and but I do have celery seeds and I am going to do exactly as you did. Cheers!