One Pot Chicken and Veggies

A few weeks ago I asked my husband to pick up something for me to fix for dinner. It had been a long day and I would be home later than normal. It's always interesting to see what he brings home. His notions of easy or light, etc. can be somewhat different from mine. On this occasion he had fetched me a whole chicken, frozen white corn, and a red bell pepper. After dragging myself in the door and discovering this array, I decided to forego the sautéing of the veggies. I did not have enough energy. So I diced up the pepper and placed it in the bottom of an enameled cast iron pot (I use Le Creuset). I had an onion lying about and that was diced up, too and placed in the pot. I then put about a cup of the corn in the pot. I added about a teaspoon of dried thyme to the medley. I then rinsed the chicken and sprinkled it with salt and pepper and then placed it breast side down on top of the veggies. I put the top on the pot and placed in it the oven at 325 degrees for about 1 ½ hours until the chicken was done.

A delicious one pot meal! Because I did not have to fool with stirring or watching the stove, I could relax and have a glass of wine, converse with my hubby, and pay attention to my needy little kitties. The chicken came out very moist, as well as extremely tender, and the veggies had a great flavor. If I had had some energy, I would have considered turning the chicken upright, removing the pot lid, increasing the over temperature, and browning the skin…but not tonight.

The next night I stripped the rest of the meat from the chicken and threw the meat and the leftover veggies in a pot. I then poured in some chicken stock and heated it up for soup. Before serving I threw in ½ a cup of rice. Once the rice was cooked, the soup was done.