We were planning on having friends over last night, so we had two chickens set out for the smoker. Plans changed when The Wife woke up not feeling the best...but we still had those chickens sitting in the fridge. I went out to fire up the smoker about 4:00 and was met with another surprise - no charcoal.I didn't feel like running back out so I began looking for recipes - and thinking through what we had on hand. We didn't have stock, we only had one bottle of white wine (and I was going to get it before the bird did.) I knew we had milk so I googled "milk braised chicken" and stumbled across this recipe from Big Red Kitchen - based on Jamie Oliver's recipe.
I made a couple of modifications and the result turned out great. I added half of a red onion, chopped, and used basil instead of sage - because that's what we have growing out back. I also kept her idea of adding rice to the pot.
Ingredients:
Salt
Pepper
1 Whole Chicken
1 Tablespoon Butter
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1/2 Chopped Red Onion
10 Garlic Cloves
1 Cup Rice
Zest of 1 Lemon
10 Basil Leaves
1 Cinnamon Stick
2 Cups Milk
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 375.
In a dutch oven, heat the butter and olive oil over medium high heat.
Liberally season your chicken all over with salt and pepper. When your oil is hot, sear your chicken on both sides (about 5 minutes per side) to brown to skin.
Remove your chicken from the pot and set aside. Add your onions and garlic and cook for another minute or two - until they start to turn translucent. Stir in your uncooked rice, and stir for another minute to brown.
Make a well with your rice, and add your whole chicken back to the pot.
Drop in your basil leaves, cinnamon stick and zest a lemon over the chicken.
Pour your milk over the chicken, cover and bake for 90 minutes.
You'll need to spoon out the excess fat when you take it out of the oven, but the bird is juicy and almost fall off the bone.
Perfect "one pot" meal the next time someone in your house is feeling under the weather.
Enjoy!
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