Little Jack’s Corner

While pregnant, I’ve found myself becoming quite lazy with my cooking.  Granted, I love cooking and thinking up new things - it’s getting the initiative to do it that makes it hard.  Therefore, anything that’s one-pot-easy is terrific in my books!  I like to call them “Pregnancy Delight” dinners. :)  

So, for this week’s Works for Me Wednesday (hosted by Rocks In My Dryer), 
I’m going to show you how to make the entire meal shown above
using just one pot. 
Nothing more, nothing less.

(The Backstory) ….Before marriage, I didn’t cook anything.  Nope, didn’t have to - I was the spoilt only daughter of older parents!  The kitchen was mom’s domain.  She didn’t like her animal loving daughter messin’ around her area anyway.  Also (as I’ve learned in recent years) since she doesn’t follows recipes or any formal method of cooking herself she was never quite sure how to teach me anyway.

I’ve come quite a long way since my first cooking experience during the early days of marriage in summer of 2006. 

My first experience with whole chicken came with an aweful fright - first, I learned that the paper looking stuff on the outside needed to come off before cooking.  Then, I realized (in the midst of cooking nonetheless) that I should have dug into his cavity and removed the bag with his neck and gizzards.  Can we say, EWW?? 

Nowadays, however, I love cooking whole chicken.  They’re extremely easy and practically impossible to mess up - not to mention very economical (I can pick up whole fryers for $3 bucks or less on sale at our local Food Lion…and freeze them!).   Sooo many different meals can be made just by adding different ingredients to the stock pot.  It’s also an easy dinner fix because most people typically have all the ingredients needed to make an excellent meal in their freezer, frig, and pantry if they’d just use imagination.

And tonight just happened to be one of those one-pot-meal creations from our stored food supplies.  I started at 3:45 and it was finished at 6:45 - with very minimum work from me.

The One Pot Chicken Meal

3:45 pm - We had a whole fryer chicken (which is great for our 2 person household - another home may need a hen though) in our freezer from a sale a month or so ago.  I plopped it out of its package, and put it completely frozen (I usually don’t bother to thaw) in a large stock pot full of water, and then set it to boiling on high for an hour.  During this hour I casually added a spoon of butter, some salt, pepper, lemon pepper, and garlic powder.  You can add whatever you want as seasoning.  I also added about 16 oz of Swanson’s chicken broth from our pantry that was nearing it’s shelf life. 

4:45 pm - After an hour of high boiling (during which I had to replenish some water loss), I added 2 ears of frozen corn and a bag of frozen broccoli.  I was in the mood for veggies and broccoli sounded great. :)   I also tossed in three small white potatoes (uncut, unpeeled, but washed good) for my husband. 

5:30 pm - Normally, I toss in noodles at this point if I’m making soup, and I debone the chicken - but since this was an actual solid “meal” I had planned, I left out the noodles and didn’t debone (if you have children though, you’d want to debone it at some point before serving).

5:45 pm - About 2 hours into the boiling on high (or almost high - sometimes I cut it down if it started sloshing over the top), I added another spoon scoop of butter, a squirt of ketchup, a squirt of mustard, a dash of whole milk, and tore up 6 slices of regular slice cheese (the kind made for sandwhiches) to toss in.  I also added the rest of some frozen bag sweet peas (about 1/2 cup) in with everything to give extra bulk to the broccoli (since I wasn’t eating potatoes).  

Please note, I didn’t measure anything.  This is a true pump and dump style of cooking.

6:15 pm - I stirred everything quite frequently after the 2.5 hour mark, turned the burner down to below medium, put on the lid, and let it cook for another 30 minutes.  

6:45 pm - We ate at 6:45 so it only took 3 hours to get everything from frozen solid to done and dished onto the plate - and felt like I had not really cooked at all since it was soooo easy.  After it was done, I scooped everything out separately (separating is the key to making it a “meal”) and spread it around the plates.  The broccoli  & peas were topped with another piece of torn slice cheese (which melted perfectly from the heat).  I also spooned some broth out in bowls for a separate “soup” side.   Then dinner was complete with a cup of icded milk and water. 

All in all, from my one pot, we ended up with:

• Boiled Chicken (so soft it fell off the bones)
• Broccoli & Peas Mix (Topped with melted cheese, with chicken shreads tossed in)
• Corn on the Cob
• Whole Potatoes
• Chicken Broth Soup

It was excellent! My hubby ate silently through the whole meal and I feared he didn’t like it. But upon finishing it, he looked up and said “Man, I feel like I’m eating like a King tonight…do you have more??”.  He even begged to take some to work.

I don’t know about yall, but I completely thrive on compliments about my cooking - especially when they come from my hubby!!   

Hopefully this will give you an idea of how to do your own one dish meal.  It’s really a give&take process and no formal recipe is required.  Just a chicken and your site items of choice.  Oh..and a really big stock pot. 

Pictures of my own plate below. 
I didn’t eat potatoes, and I didn’t separate a hunk of chicken for myself.
We both had the soup in bowls (it was rich and creamy and well spiced!)