Chicken tastes great when fried, smothered, baked, skewered and even fricasseed. You can cook and pair chicken with rice, potatoes, pasta, bread and just about anything else food wise practically.

You can even pair chicken with peanut butter!

Chicken is a meat that goes with just about anything and people enjoy it anytime from breakfast, to lunch, dinner and snacks in between. This Dutch oven chicken recipe typically lends itself to be more of a dinner dish but you may get an urge to have it at another time. Go for it!

Yummy is yummy at any time to the tummy.

For those of you unfamiliar with what exactly a Dutch oven is, quite plainly a Dutch oven is large pot (usually and traditionally cast iron, although you can find ceramic variations) with a lid. Dutch ovens go by different names depending on where you are in the world, with casserole dish being one of them.

Now that the equipment portion is out of the way let’s get down to business. Chicken cooked in a Dutch oven seals in moisture so that your chicken does not dry. While chicken usually is delicious, there is almost nothing worse than a dry chicken breast.

Ingredients

1 chicken (5 – 7 pounds)	1 1/2 tsp Black pepper
2 tsp Salt (1 for inside, 1 for outside)	2 tsp Garlic granules
1 tsp Parsley	1 lemon, halved
1 tsp Rosemary*	4 garlic cloves
1 tsp Thyme*	2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 large onion, thickly sliced	1 tablespoon Olive oil
4 red potatoes, quartered	3 Carrots, chopped
1 Celery stalk, chopped	1 cup broth (optional)

For thyme and rosemary these are measurements for the outside only. With fresh sprigs, place inside chicken.

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Clean and rinse your chicken, remove giblets or anything on the inside of the chicken and pat dry. Salt the inside of the chicken and add your lemon, garlic and onion. If you have opted to include fresh thyme or rosemary, add those to the inside of the chicken as well. When it comes to the garlic, I personally pierce the chicken on both sides from within and place single cloves of garlic. To me this really enhances the flavor.

Also let me not forget (although optional), diced celery goes inside as well. Alternatively, you can use bell pepper (sliced). I have done either or and both even.

With the inside preparation complete, this is where you sprinkle on your garlic granules, salt, pepper and other herbs on the outside.

Some Dutch oven chicken recipe simply call for brushing melted butter on the outside of the chicken, I use both butter and olive oil. Maybe it’s too much, but I love the flavor of both when they come together with the bits of garlic, lemon and everything else in the chicken recipe.

Sometimes and depending on the mood, I may even put a half a pat of butter on the inside!

After adding your herbs, spices and coating with olive oil, butter (or both), tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the chicken wing tips under the body.

Your potatoes, onions and carrots you can now place in your Dutch oven and add additional salt and pepper if you so desire along with a little olive oil and if you like a little broth. Sometimes I use vegetable broth, other times I’ve used chicken. This is optional and really depends on if I am making rice as a side dish. I know there are potatoes, but to have the option is nice.

Place the chicken on top and roast in the oven between an hour and a half and two hours (or slightly less) depending on the size of the chicken. Essentially, you want only clear juices to run when cut.

Note:  425 degrees is for the first 15-20 minutes of cooking time. After that, reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees for the remainder of the cooking time.

Enjoy.