Day 42: Chicken open-pot roast

Apologies for the lateness of this post tonight but I had a work do so my day involved coming home from work, making dinner, going out and coming home to do my blog! But it's ok, I don't drink so I'm not under the influence if not a bit sleep deprived. It’s at these wee hours of the morning that I’m beginning to think this blog is becoming hard core. But not one to let my readers down, I am here blogging about the Chicken open-pot roast I made this evening.

It was the second outing for my nice new casserole dish so I’ve already halved its cost-per-use! To start off, I put olive oil in the dish and put it on a high heat on the hob. I used seven chicken thighs instead of the four which the recipe stated because I could fit seven in the dish. I seasoned them and, once the oil was really hot, I put the chicken into it skin down to brown for 5 minutes. After that, I flipped it over and added chopped leak, potatoes and chicken stock. Once it came up to the boil, I threw some sprigs of flat leaf parsley on and put the lid on before setting it in the oven. Now, the recipe said to use tarragon instead of parsley but I have found that tarragon is very difficult to get in this part of the world. However, for another recipe which I intend to use tarragon in in a couple of weeks, I had to call in the Twitterati and thankfully have that sorted. But, for tonight, parsley it was. I thought it was my safest bet. Because I used extra chicken thighs and potatoes in the dish, I added on more cooking time for fear of giving Dear Husband food poisoning.

Just as the sinking of the Titanic was a mathematical certainty, I am almost sure that it is a mathematical certainty that I will eventually end up giving someone food poisoning. The law of statistics, you see. That’s one of the reasons why (although he means well), I don’t like it when Dear Husband tells everyone about my cooking because I often fear that will happen. How it will really happen might turn out to be a bit of mystery though considering that I always err on the side of caution so I tend to over-cook rather than under-cook. Plus, between the latex gloves and constant handwashing to prevent me contaminating something or other, I am beginning to think I am a bit neurotic in my approach to cooking! Did I mention that I’m a germophobe? Honestly, anti-bacterial handwash, anti-bacterial wipes – if it’s anti-bacterial, I will surely own it. But it's ok, I have come to the conclusion that most people in the education profession have OCD-type tendencies. 

Anyway, getting back to the recipe, once it was finished cooking, I added in Dijon mustard and lemon juice. Finally, I sprinkled over some more freshly chopped parsley and left Dear Husband to it.

The verdict…

Dear Husband gave it 7.5 marks out of 10. It’s not often I cook him chicken thighs but he thought they were really nice. The potatoes were ‘lovely’. He said he would definitely eat again so it’s made The List. I liked it because it was extremely easy to prepare and it used one dish. Plus, I didn’t seem to make my usual mess in the process of preparing it which was fine for Dear Husband as he was left with the clearing up as I ran out the door!

So, there you go. Another good chicken dish which would be good for everyone at any time of year. Definitely one for the winter evenings though which is in contrast to today being the longest day of the year. Pity though that couldn’t extend to be the longest night too. At this rate, it will be time to get up before I get to sleep. Good night!