Shelly's Recipe

COUNTRY SMOTHERED CHICKEN

Category: Chicken

2 chickens, skinned and cut into pieces
2 Tbsp Poultry Seasoning
4 tsp poultry grilling seasoning
3/4 stick margarine
1 lb fresh smoked country sausage
3 large onions, sliced in chunks
2/3 cup celery, coarsely cut
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 lb Portabella mushrooms, chunked
1 cup fresh carrots, large dice
1/2 cup chicken stock + 1/2 cup white wine
3 bay leaves
2 tsp. sweet basil
1/2 tsp. white pepper
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 Tbsp parsley, minced
2 Tbsp green onions, chopped
3 Tbsp cornstarch mixed with 1/3 cup water
6 cups broad egg noodles, cooked al dente

Cut the chickens into serving pieces, wash them thoroughly, and remove all the fat. Then season each piece well with both the seasonings.

Add the butter to a black cast iron 6-quart Dutch oven and get it to the point of just starting to brown. Then drop in the sausage, the onions, the celery, the bell pepper, the mushrooms, and the carrots and fry the mixture until it caramelizes (turns a dark brown). Then when the seasoning vegetables are cooked, remove them from the Dutch oven with a slotted spoon and set them aside in a strainer placed over a bowl.

Now, using the same butter you used to caramelize the veggies, drop in and quickly fry the chicken pieces until they brown slightly. When fully seared, remove the chicken from the pot and set it aside too.

At this point, bring the pot back to “high heat, inch stir in the chicken stock and white wine, and bring it to a boil. Deglaze inch the pot (take a spoon and scrape off the bottom all the debris that stuck to the pot as the chicken browned).

Then, in alternating layers, add the chicken and the sauteed vegetables back to the Dutch oven, along with the bay leaves, the sweet basil, the white pepper, and the all purpose flour.

When all the ingredients are in, reduce the heat and smother everything down until the chicken is tender (or until the meat starts to pull away from the bone—which should take about an hour or so). Finally, about 10 minutes before the chicken is ready to serve, drop in the broccoli florets and the green peas and allow them to soften at a simmer.

Remove the chicken from the pot and place it on a warming platter. Then bring the pot gravy to a boil, toss in a sprinkling of parsley and green onions, and thicken the gravy to your taste by stirring in 3 tbsp of cornstarch mixed with 1/3 cup cold water. All that’s left is to ladle the sauce over the platter of chicken and spoon everything over a heaping plate of hot noodles!

Notes: For an even easier version of this dish, quickly saute the seasoning vegetables until they caramelize. Then toss all the remaining ingredients into the Dutch oven (in layers), cover the pot, and slide the pot into the oven at 325. Then about an hour and a half later, take the pot from the oven, remove the cover, and place the chicken pieces on a serving platter. Bring the gravy to a boil, thicken it with a little cornstarch mixed in cold water, spoon it over the chicken, and serve. While it is cooking, do not baste or stir it.