Sunday, November 14, 2010

Roasted Chicken with Leeks and Apples AND Pot Pie AND Soup!

That Real Simple cookbook I checked ut of the library has been put to good use in our kitchen this past week. Believe it or not, but we ended up with three different meals from one recipe!

It started with........Roasted Chicken with Leeks and Apples

Hands on time: 10 minutes Total Time: 55 minutes



What you'll need..........

4 small (or 2 extra large) Empire or Braeburn apples, quartered
2 leeks (white and green parts) halved crosswise and sliced up
A few sprigs of fresh rosemary
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper
8 small chicken thighs and legs (4 of each)

A tip – Roasting chicken with fruit adds a rich caramelized sweetness to the bird. If you don’t want to use apples, try Bartlett or Bosc pears.

Heat oven to 400 F. In a large roasting pan, toss the apples, leeks, rosemary, olive oil and salt and pepper.

Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Place the chicken pieces, skin side up, amonst the vegetables.




Roast until chicken is done and apples and leeks are tender. This should take about 45 minutes.



NOTE – I used Braeburn apples. I also increased the amount of chicken pieces to 6 legs and 6 thighs. Because we can always use leftovers for another meal or for soup, chicken salad, chicken pot pie….

We had this two evenings for dinner – afterwards, I shredded all the leftovers pieces of chicken and made two more meals.



A chicken pot pie (which provided another two meals for the three of us)


and the rest went into chicken, vegetable and rice soup.




The book is appropriately named – Real Simple – Best Recipes


Enjoy!

16 comments:

  1. Fantastic post! Love to make multiple meals starting with chicken; great combination of ingredients to start it off and then,wow. Not always easy cooking for 2 when you used to cook for a gang.

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  2. Thank you Rita - chicken is definitely a item we use constantly. So many different ways to prepare. Cooking for two is different after all those years, that is for sure!

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  3. I love tumbledown recipes - leftovers make good second dinners and lunches with a little stretching :o) My lamb shoulder cawl stretches in a similar way!

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  4. Holy smokes Tina, I can't believe you got so many meals from the original one! That's amazing, it really is. I guess I could do that if I just made the effort. Most of the time it's just my husband and I, and I tend to make smaller meals - I just don't think of doing what you did. Great recipes, thank you so much for sharing with Cookbook Sundays!

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  5. I have more roast chicken recipes to blog about but I just need to find the energy first.

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  6. In business world this would be called effective and efficient. I love the idea of making multiple dishes starting from one ingredient, chicken. In this way dinner or lunch become very exciting.

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  7. just finished a post this morning about how you cannot have enough roasted chicken, coming up later in the week - like the fruit addition, bet it did caramelize the chicken nicely

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  8. Hey Mrs. L - send me that lamb shoulder recipe please!

    Brenda - thanks! I am loving your series and it's giving me inspirtaion.

    WC - I can't wait to see them. You have the BEST recipes!

    Katerina - If I can stretch out the meals, it's so good for us all, budget too :-)

    Drick - I look forward to your post. Yes, carmelizing makes the bird look so pretty.

    Melynda - thank you so much!

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  9. Okay. The roast chicken sounds delicious...but it's the pot pie that wins my heart...a total favorite of mine...sounds and looks amazing, Tina!!! :D

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  10. Thanks Heather! Pot pie is such a comfort food.

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  11. Great combination of ingredients Tina - I'm totally impressed that you managed to stretch that to three dishes - we would have demolished three quarters of that in the first sitting, and there are only 2 of us!!
    Sue :-)

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  12. Sue - I was actually surprised it stretched so far. The bones are now in the crock poy, making chicken broth as I speak to you!

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  13. That's it...I must get porcini!! This sounds absolutely perfect :)

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  14. How did I post about porcinis in this spot?Huh, something got mixed up, sorry about that. Thanks for linking this up to hearth and soul hop this week, Tina!! Have a wonderful turkey day!

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  15. Wow, you can seriously stretch a dish! I think they all look mouthwatering good - the first night would be my favorite for sure. Thanks for sharing this with the Hearth and Soul Hop!

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