- Hi guys, welcome back to my channel.
It is good to be back in the States
after spending the summer in France.
Although, I do miss that French kitchen just a little bit.
(host chuckles)
If you're just joining me
and you wanna get caught up on all of the French videos,
I will link to them below,
and that way you can get caught up
and see what I did on my summer vacation.
(host chuckles)
Okay, so to kick things off,
I thought it would be good
to share a wonderful Sunday night dinner,
because I think they just set everybody up
for the week ahead.
And this one is a great one,
because it's chicken and rice and vegetables
all in one pot.
You set it and forget it in the oven.
That way, you can get all your dishes done,
help with homework, do whatever you have to do,
and then dinner is ready.
For this recipe,
I'm gonna be using the bone-in, skin-on chicken legs.
And any time I'm doing a one pot meal
that braises for a lot of time,
I like to use this kind of meat
because it won't dry out in the oven,
like if you used a chicken breast.
You could certainly do the chicken breast,
but I definitely would make sure it's bone-in and skin-on.
The skin, as it cooks,
the fat will sort of seep down into the chicken
and make it a little bit more moist
than if you were just using
a boneless-skinless chicken breast.
And the bone-in also keeps it moist, as well.
So, I'm gonna just set this chicken aside
and in meanwhile,
we're gonna create just a really quick and easy rub
for the chicken.
So I'm using some fresh thyme.
This time of year I love to cook with thyme,
because it just feels so fall-like and hardy,
and reminds me that Thanksgiving is coming.
(host chuckles)
Okay, so to create our rub,
we're gonna take 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt.
And then we also need two tablespoons of fresh thyme.
So, we're just gonna scrape off the leaves like this.
Just going in the opposite direction.
But sometimes, if I'm really in hurry,
to be honest, I just chop it.
So what are you guys thinking about for Thanksgiving?
What types of recipes do you need this year?
I know last year, we did the quarantine Thanksgiving.
And (host chuckles)
while that wasn't so fun, the menu was really delicious,
so that's still a good menu, even for this year I think.
So now that we have our chopped thyme,
we are gonna add that to our bowl, just like that.
There we go.
But now we have this beautiful rub
that we're gonna put on our chicken,
pressing it into the meat
and making sure that you're getting it on all sides.
Then you can let your chicken hang out on the countertop
while you prep the vegetables.
So, it's only gonna take about 20 minutes or so,
and that's the perfect amount of time
to kinda get the seasoning working on that chicken skin.
(host chuckles)
So to begin, we're gonna use 1/2 a cup of diced carrots
and a cup of diced white onion.
So I think the easiest way to dice a carrot
is really just to cut it in half.
Then when you've got two flat sides,
you can put the flat sides down.
It's always important, I think,
whenever you're cutting any vegetable,
to always look for the flat side,
because then, when you start to cut it,
your vegetable is stabilized
and it's not gonna rock 'n roll everywhere on you.
So then, once you cut in half,
I like to cut it again in half,
(knife chopping)
just so you're working with smaller pieces.
And then, you can cut these pieces in thirds, right?
And then, once you have these little matchsticks,
it's so much easier to just hold it, like this.
You can tuck your fingers under if you want to do that.
And then give it a dice.
And I think the best way
is to keep your knife tip on the board like this
and just move up and down with knife.
That will actually give you a lot more stability.
There you go.
Easy dice.
So now we wanna sear our chicken.
So I'm gonna take a tablespoon of olive oil
and put it in the bottom of my pot here.
So you wanna use something
that you can braise the chicken in
that's oven-safe.
So I really like this braiser because it has a lid to it.
but something that's sort of low like this
and is is covered and is oven-safe
is the way to go.
You could also use a Dutch oven
if you didn't have something this shallow.
That would be fine too.
Now the secret with getting a really nice, golden brown skin
is you need to make sure this pot is like smoking hot.
If you put it in too soon,
it won't crisp up and it'll start to stick to the pan.
That usually means that your pan was not hot enough,
or you've tried to flip it too soon.
Okay, this pan is looking good,
and I am gonna add my chicken in.
(chicken sizzles)
You wanna go skin side down.
And you wanna do this in batches.
I think usually three at a time is a good way to go.
Kinda like fitting in a puzzle.
(host chuckles) (chicken sizzles)
Okay, and once they're looking good,
you can go ahead and give 'em a flip.
There.
You actually don't need them to be completely cooked through
at this stage.
We're gonna do that in the oven.
So this is really just to lock in the flavor
and get them nice and golden brown.
All of my chicken has been seared.
I'm gonna set this aside
and we're gonna cook our vegetables in the chicken fat,
because there's a ton of flavor in that fat.
And if you find that your pan is a little dry,
you could add another tablespoon of olive oil.
I actually have enough fat in here,
so I'm not gonna add that much.
Then you wanna add the onions first,
so in they go. (onions sizzle)
See they're getting coated
with all that flavor of the chicken fat.
This is gonna make it so delicious.
Okay, and we're also gonna add our diced carrots.
In they go.
There we go.
And I just push these down just a little bit
until the onions start to become translucent
and the carrots start to tender.
But you really don't need to cook them that much
because they are gonna cook in the oven.
It's really just to kinda get all of those drippings
coated in the veggies.
Then we are gonna deglaze our pan
with four cups of chicken broth.
So in it goes.
Now this may seem like a lot of chicken broth,
but we are gonna cook our rice in this chicken broth.
Then I'm also gonna add five ounces of shiitake mushrooms.
I love the shiitake mushrooms
because I find these just have a really great flavor
in the rice.
So we're gonna add those.
You could leave the mushrooms out.
I know there are people who do not like mushrooms.
(host chuckles)
So if you're one of those people, shame on you.
No, I'm kidding.
You can totally leave them out.
Then we're gonna add our rice.
So I got two cups of brown rice here.
I like the brown rice
because not only do you get more nutrition out of it
than the white rice,
but it feels so fall and homey, I think, the brown rice.
It works really well with the chicken.
Alright, now we are gonna some seasoning to this broth.
So I like to do Worcestershire sauce.
In it goes.
I just kinda eyeball it, but you might wanna measure.
(host laughs)
I cook with so much with Worcestershire sauce
that I kinda have an idea what a teaspoon looks like.
And then I also like to add some butter.
So I'm gonna use two tablespoons of butter.
And remember because we're cooking rice,
the butter also really flavors that rice, as well.
So I think it's a good thing to add.
And then you're just gonna give it a stir.
And I also just like to season
a little bit of salt and pepper, just to to taste.
And see how it's simmering?
That's kind of giving the rice a little bit of a head start.
And then, to flavor our broth even more,
which will then flavor our rice,
I'm gonna add three to five springs of fresh thyme,
just in our little pot like that.
And we'll just fish it out before we serve it.
There we go. (pot clangs)
Alright, now we're gonna lay in the chicken.
So I'm a big fan of these non-stick tongs for this
because they are really great preserving the crispy skin,
so that you don't tear it
the way that the metal tongs would.
So you can just lay them in.
This is ready for the oven.
It's basically done.
So now, we are gonna put the cover on.
Then we're gonna place this in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven
for 45 minutes to 50 minutes to begin.
At that point, you can remove the cover
and let it go for another 15 minutes.
And that last 15 minutes will also help crisp up the skin.
Okay, now one other thing I forgot to tell you:
Add some minced garlic, one clove, into the broth
before you place the chicken.
That will really flavor your rice as it simmers.
I forgot to tell you that
because it's been a while since I've used these cameras
and had to shoot my own videos.
The iPhone this summer was so much easier.
So I was a little distracted.
But definitely do the garlic,
because it's really delicious that way.
The only other thing that I like to do
is to sprinkle a little bit of freshly chopped parsley
on the top.
I hope you guys give this one a try
and let me know what you think.
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The link is below
and I will see you back here next week.
Until then, bye.