Poule au Pot (One-Pot Chicken & Veg)
I love no-waste dinners. The kind that make a load of things in one and use up everything.
The French are especially good at these kinds of meals, I have found. And there is one in particular I find comforting at this time of year. Poule au pot (or pot au feu if you are making it on the stove top) is delicious, nutritious, no-waste and super warming and comforting.
It not only makes a really yummy filling lunch or hearty dinner, it also gives you chicken stock, cooked meat and cooked veg to use in lunches and leftover meals in the week. In one cooking session, you’ve made food for several meals. I love that. Because seriously, who has the time anymore?
This is my twist on my grand-mère’s pot au feu recipe. My grandmother was a formidable French farmer’s wife who let nothing go to waste. I never got to meet her, but I feel like I have through the handwritten and spoken recipes passed down to me through my mother. I can relate to her frugal, nose-to-tail, from scratch cooking methods, and I admire her and connect to her through her food.
There is something really special about food and the way it brings people together, not only through it’s ability to trigger memories and nostalgia, but also in the way it is a universal language that everyone has to (and most love to) speak. It brings a family around a dinner table in the evening and is where much of the growing together of families, couples and friends happens. A bowl of chicken & veg broth is suddenly not just chicken soup – it brings to mind and creates memories, it bonds a family as they talk through their day, listen to each others’ problems, and laugh together, all over the steam that rises from a simple meal that tells each person how much they are loved through the effort put into making it, whoever may have been the cook behind it.
Food is a love language. I’m convinced of that. So it’s worth a little effort to me – but it’s always a bonus when a recipe makes my effort over the next few days a little lighter! So thank you, grand-mère, for yet another recipe that makes my week a little easier.
Adapted from my French grandmother's recipe, this poule au pot (one-pot chicken and veg) gives you so much for so little effort. Everything goes in one pot and you get cooked meat, cooked veg and stock for the week. This will easily feed 4 with plenty of leftovers for the week, or feed a hungry crowd of 6-8 without leftovers. Gluten and dairy free.
- 1 1.5-2kg whole chicken (organic or at least free-range if possible)
- 2 onions, peeled and quartered
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
- 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
- good pinch sea salt
- 1 teaspoon vinegar
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme
- 2 turnips, roughly chopped into cubes
- 2 leeks, roughly chopped into rings
- 2 large (baking) potatoes, roughly chopped into cubes
- 2 carrots, roughly chopped into rings
- handful roughly chopped fresh parsley, to serve
- Dijon mustard, to serve
- 1 carrot, finely diced
- 1 small leek, finely sliced
- 1/2 onion, finely diced
- olive oil and/or butter
- 2 big slices (gluten-free) bread or 1/2 small (gluten-free) baguette, cut into cubes
- a few handfuls leftover cooked pork (gammon, pork mince or sausagemeat)
- 1 apple, diced
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- leaves from 2 sprigs fresh thyme, optional
- salt & pepper
- 1 bulb garlic with the top sliced off revealing the cloves, optional
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Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas 4. Place the chicken and onion with the spices, salt, vinegar and thyme and cover with water (about 2 litres/8 cups) in a large stockpot or big lidded oven-safe casserole pot. Place the lidded casserole pot in the oven for 90 minutes. Remove the lid and add the chopped turnips, leeks, potatoes and carrots, then put the lid back on and return to the oven for another 30 minutes. Slice or shred the chicken and serve in bowls with the cooked veg and ladle over some chicken stock. Top with fresh parsley and Dijon mustard.
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If making the stuffing, make it while the chicken cooks. Fry the carrot, onion and leek in 3-4 tablespoons of oil or butter for 5-8 minutes until softened. Add a few handfuls of cubed bread, some cooked pork, the apple and herbs. Season to taste and fry for another few minutes until the bread is lightly golden. Preheat an oven to 220C/425F/gas 7 (if you have only one oven, you can set the stuffing aside until the chicken is done and give it 5 minutes to adjust to the higher temperature - keep the lid on the chicken to keep it warm while the stuffing cooks). Pour the stuffing into a roasting tin and place in the oven, alongside the garlic bulb if using (I like to put it on a square of tin foil next to the tin) drizzled with a little olive oil. Roast for 25-30 minutes, until stuffing is golden and crispy and garlic cloves are soft and squishy. Squeeze a few of the garlic cloves into the stuffing and mix well. Serve the stuffing with the poule au pot.
