This week’s recipe for Cook the Book Fridays comes from Dorie Greenspan’s cookbook, Everyday Dorie. Lemon-fennel chicken in a pot is basically a hands-off dish that was perfect for a busy recent Sunday dinner
Dorie makes it sound so lovely:
A head of fennel, a couple of lemons and a lot of garlic and shallots get tossed in a pot with olive oil, honey, thyme and bay leaves and jiggled a bit to make a bed for an oil-massaged chicken. Then you pour over some broth, cover the pot and sit back while the bird turns golden and the vegetables soften and pick up even more flavour.
Ok sure! But I wasn’t going to make a whole chicken – I found whole chicken legs which I thought would be perfect for a smaller version of the dish. Also, if you look at the photo in the book, the chicken is not exactly “golden” (how can it be when the pot is covered? There are instructions to run it under the broiler after it’s finished cooking) so I already had plans to broil the dish at the end – chicken needs to be golden!
The chicken cooks at 450˚F for 90 minutes (time given for a whole chicken) which seemed like a lot – I tested the temperature of my chicken with a digital meat thermometer to check for doneness and my chicken was just in around an hour.
This was tasty but I have to say the fennel flavour was somewhat lost (and the veggies were a little soft for my liking…). A great technique (and a good cut of chicken for this – and a good one to remember) but I think I prefer crispy veggies (like potatoes, carrots etc…) with my roast chicken (and I definitely prefer crispy golden skin!).
Get the recipe for Dorie Greenspan’s Lemon-fennel chicken in a pot from Everyday Dorie on page 133 of Everyday Dorie.
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Disclosure: I was provided with a copy of “Everyday Dorie” for review purposes. I was not asked to write about the book, nor am I being compensated for doing so. All opinions 100% my own.
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The best part of this dish was the *whole* head of garlic you see there. Obviously softens up in texture, but flavour as well…so a nice garlicky spread for some of the chicken and veggies.
Paired this with a Slovenian white from Istria, blend of Malvazija and Pinot Blanc.
Thank you for the wine pairing, lovely to have that from a Master!
Looks lovely, Mardi, and nice to hear how to do it well with just two thighs like that rather than a whole chicken. I do have plans for the leftover chicken so not a loss, but it’s nice to know how to do smaller portions when I can. I agree on the veggies, although they were nicely flavoring the chicken. I so wanted to stick some carrots in there but I didn’t…next time, though, there will be carrots.
So interesting…I didn’t broil my chicken and it turned out nicely brown…with the lid on. I do agree with the previous comment…the roasted garlic is the star of the show haha. I did like the ease of making this and the leftover chicken!
After reading your post and the comments here, I get several good ideas. I like my chicken browned, adding some carrots works for me and the roasted head of garlic is a flavor bomb. Look forward to trying out these ideas next time I roast a whole chicken.
This sounds good – I’ll have to give it a try.
I agree with you all the way around.