Jamie Oliver’s One Pot Chicken in Milk

I’ve always liked Jamie Oliver and have wiled away many an hour perusing his cookbooks.  But this is a weird recipe and not one I was likely to try.  But the opportunity came up when I wrote Chicken on our grocery list thinking that hubby would pick up a Rotisserie chicken.  But instead, he comes home with a 4.5 lb. raw chicken.  (You would think by now I would have learned to do all the grocery shopping by myself …)  So, hence, this recipe.  I must say I was intrigued because the combination of milk, lemons and chicken didn’t sound very appetizing to me.  Because as we all know, if you add lemon to milk, it curdles.  And curds are not really attractive (unless they’re cheese curds, which are just plain yummy!) I had the rest of the ingredients, so figured why not give this a try?  So, I hauled out my trusty Dutch Oven and proceeded to make culinary magic.

I will absolutely make this again, as it turned out to be one of the most delicious chickens I have every tasted!  The meat was moist and lightly flavored with lemon peel and sage, and the softened cloves were wonderful!  The lemon scented broth is OMG good!  A bite of chicken meat dressed with the broth made me think I was in heaven.  The only thing I would change, and this is probably a matter of semantics, is that the original British version of the recipe called for lemon zest.  What I think the British recipe meant by zest was lemon peel; as in large pieces of lemon peel rather than zest.  I had made this with lemon zest, which made the broth more cloudy so I strained out the zest, making the rest of the dish was just stellar!

Diff:  Easy      Prep:  30 min

Cook:  1 hr 30 min     Serves:  4-6

Ingredients

  • 3-4.5 lb. chicken

  • Sea salt

  • Freshly ground black pepper

  • Extra virgin olive oil - (1/8-1/4 cup)

  • 1 stick butter (4 oz.)

  • 1/2 stick cinnamon

  • 1 handful fresh sage leaves

  • Peel of two lemons (large pieces)

  • 10 - 12 garlic cloves, unpeeled

  • 2 cups whole milk

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 375 F.

  • Season chicken generously with black pepper and sea salt.

  • In a Dutch oven or snug fitting pot, fry the chicken in a combination of the melted butter with a little olive oil added, turning the chicken until you have an even golden color all over.

  • Remove from heat; put the chicken on a plate, and throw away the oil and butter left in your Dutch Oven or Pot.

  • Put the chicken back into your Dutch Oven/Pot along with the rest of the ingredients, and cook in your preheated oven for 1 1/2 hours.

  • During this time, baste chicken several times with the cooking juices.  The lemon peel will curdle the milk, resulting in the most fabulous sauce!

  • To serve, slice off portions of meat and spoon plenty of juice and curds over meat.  Inhale, exhale and enjoy!

This dish will smell absolutely fantastic when it comes out of the oven.  This would be great for a Sunday or special dinner paired with steamed spinach, sautéed mushrooms and mashed sweet potatoes.  I think I’m going to make this for Mother’s Day, how about you?

Until next time, wishing all mom’s a Happy Mother’s Day, all of God’s blessings, good health and happy eating!

Smiles,

Maria

2 responses to “Jamie Oliver’s One Pot Chicken in Milk

  1. This is surprisingly simple looking- I think I could manage this! If you’re interested, I’d love for you to share a post in my blog link up tomorrow. There’s an explanation right on my main menu under ‘Tell em Tuesday’.
    xoxo K
    http://peeledwellness.com

    LikeLike

    • Thank you K for the opportunity to share this recipe on “Tell “em Tuesday!” Your blog with it’s healthy eating focus is terrific!

      LikeLike

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