A chicken in every pot

Many people are familiar with this 1928 Presidential campaign slogan. Herbert Hoover promised the American people that there would be "A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage." Debating the veracity and wisdom of government providing the needs of a populace can wait for another blog, on another day. Hell, I'm more interested in this chicken-in-a-pot cooking scenario.

During the First Great Depression, everything was scarce, including food. Back then there was no internet, no recipe guides, no designer Whole Foods market selling people triple-organic soybean protein washed in unicorn tears. But many people, especially those still living on farms could conjure up a chicken or two. But without fancy French cooking techniques and even fancier ingredients and equipment, could someone cook a meal using only a pot, a chicken, and whatever they had on hand to make a meal that was not only nutritious, but actually GOOD too?

Tonight, I found out. I went and bought a big-ol'chicken at the store. Nothing else. Just a chicken. Now, I wasn't going to just throw my bird into a pot of water and boil it to dry and disgusting imperfection. I needed to add some aromatics at least.

Riffling around the fridge, I discovered a still-usable bit of celery. No carrots or other vegetables really, but there were a few sprigs of Rosemary. I found an onion in my sock drawer (yes, I keep onions in my sock drawer because it's a cool dry place).
A bay leaf and a few cloves of garlic rounded out the aromatics, and the chicken and his new companions soon found themselves in a nice and hot dutch oven, which then went into a 250 degree oven.

About 90 minutes later, I opened up the ducth oven and was very surprised. I found a marvelously cooked chicken, with about 2 full cups or more of pan juices!

Now I knew that I didn't want to just let that jus go to waste, so I did strain it and siphon off the fat to create a flavorful au jus. I had an old lemon sitting out, and there was enough juice in it to just brighten up the jus a bit. A fresh hit of black pepper and I was ready for dinner.

Wow. All I can say is WOW. Cooking a chicken in a pot (with no wine, broth, or any other real liquid) yields a very intense and "chickeny" bird indeed. I don't think I've had too many birds that tasted "just like chicken" as much as this chicken did.
The skin was soft, yet flavorful from browning. The meat was tender and juicy, and it was all draped gently in a coat of lip-smackin' au jus. And it was all done with just 1 pot, a chef's knife (and I confess, a strainer and gravy seperator for the jus). But that was about it. While I don't think a dish like this will influence my politics in any way, I can say that if people were eating chicken cooked this way during the 1928 elections, then I can certainly see how boasting that there would be "A chicken in every pot..." would lead to a victory for whoever boasted this sentiment. At least politicians were selling more than "Hope and Change" back then. Put that in your pot and cook it...

448 recipes to go!