Easy Chicken Pot Roast

My mind set is back in the cold weather mode. I wanted hot, comfort food! I bought a magazine in the supermarket while I was down south.  It intrigued me because of the title.  'Taste of the South: Our Annual Cast Iron Issue'.  I love cast iron.  I have several pieces of antique cast iron from my mom's kitchen as well as my husband's grandmother.  Food cooked in cast iron is comforting and tasty.  It truly is food made with love.  There is nothing new wave or trendy about cast iron cooking.  It is pure homemade honest cooking!  I had every intention of using an old black dutch oven for this recipe; however, I did not want to stuff the ingredients in the size I had.  I used my new large enamel cast iron dutch oven today.  I like to think of it as my 'pass down' cookware for future generations! I tweaked this recipe to suit the ingredients I had on hand.

Easy Chicken Pot Roast
printable recipe

1 (4-5 lb.) whole chicken
8 cloves of garlic smashed
1 onion large chopped
1 (8 oz.) pkg of mushrooms
5 Red potatoes chunked
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 lemon halved
2 c. dry white wine
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350°.  Remove and discard giblets from the chicken.  Remove excess fat.  rinse and pat dry.
Place chicken in large dutch oven.  Surround with vegetables. Squeeze the lemons over the chicken.  Place the halves in the vegetables.

*Just as a note:  Recipes using garlic call for it minced, chopped, sliced, or whole.  Each style imparts its own flavor.  This recipe called for it smashed.  It roasts the garlic and lets is ooze into the sauce.  If left whole, I find it offers a slight garlic flavor; smashed gives the sauce more body, but not overwhelming.

Add the sprigs of rosemary.
Pour over the 2 c. of wine.
Salt and pepper to taste.

Cover and bake until tender and falling apart. About 3 hours.

Sorry for the bad plate photo!  I didn't realize until after dinner the photo was in the shadows.  This was melt in your mouth chicken.  It was soft and buttery tasting.  The lemon shined through, with just a hint of garlic.  The potatoes were creamy and soaked up the rich sauce.  My favorite were the hearty mushrooms.  This was a rustic, simple chicken.  Nothing fancy, nothing elaborate.  Quick to put together and very inexpensive to make in the middle of the week.  Don't hesitate to buy whole chickens when they are on sale; they are truly the easiest thing to prepare in a variety of ways.

I served with steamed broccoli -which by the way, I used a steam in the bag frozen broccoli, name brand that was on sale, totally disgusting!  I was surprised.  I have used them before as a quick side.  No quality control and I actually threw the whole bag away after the first bite :(  I may email the company to give my feedback!