Quartered creamy chicken

I’m
always looking for recipes that work well with homegrown chickens
(meaning the meat tends to be more flavorful but also slightly tougher),
and this one is a real hit if you like cream sauces.  It’s based
roughly on this recipe,
which notes that this is a local variant on coq au vin. 
Preparation is remarkably quick and simple, with no advance preparation
needed if you have a fresh chicken on hand.



The ingredients:

• 1 small chicken (about 1.75 pounds)
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons butter (divided)
• 1 cup of chopped Egyptian onions, tops and greens
• 2 large carrots
• 3 stems of fresh parsley
• 0.5 cups white wine (I used cheap cooking wine from the grocery store)
• 0.5 cups chicken stock (homemade, unsalted)
• 1 pint of frozen green beans (homegrown French-filet style)
• 0.5 cups cream
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• salt, pepper, and parmesan

Preheat the oven to 350.  Then melt one tablespoon of butter with the oil in a covered, cast-iron pot on top of the stove.

Meanwhile, cut your chicken
into five parts — two thighs, two breasts with wings on but no other
bones, and the main carcass.  Sprinkle all sides of the meat with
salt and pepper, then brown them in the pot, turning once and taking
about 10 minutes to sear the outsides.

Remove the chicken from the
pot and replace it with the chopped Egyptian onions and the rest of the
butter, simmering until the onions are fully cooked.  While the
onions cook, chop the carrots into bite-size sections, and then add them
and the meat to the pot.  Top it off with the frozen beans, the
parsley (chopped), the wine, and the chicken stock, then put on the lid
and place the pot in the oven to cook for 30 minutes.

Once the carrots are cooked
through, remove the pot from the oven and place it on the stove without
the lid to boil off excess moisture.  You want there to only be a
quarter-inch or so of liquid in the bottom of the pot for a rich
sauce.  Once that happens, turn off the heat and remove the meat,
then slowly stir in the cream, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. 
Serve a scoop of vegetables, a piece of meat, and a sprinkling of
parmesan cheese on top.

This makes four servings, or
possibly five if you pick enough meat off the carcass to make the extra
person happy.  After you eat, be sure to stew up all the bones to
replace your chicken stock stash.

This is currently my
favorite way to cook homegrown chickens.  Even the pullets who we
accidentally let linger until they were nearly four months old were
delectable in this dish!