Poule au pot

A friend came round for dinner last night. To add to the fun of it, I asked them to choose any dish they wanted and I would cook it. To make it challenging I had a short answer: Poule au Pot. Obviously this is a typical french dish. The was the ambition of Henry IV of France that every family could afford this dish every Sunday. I am not French, so I've never done this before. I spent some time looking up recipes and put together ingredients which are easy to find and went without the more difficult parts of some recipes. This is the result.

Serves 2-4
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 1 1/2 hours

Ingredients

1 whole chicken (between 1.5-2kg)
4 medium turnips cut in half
8 medium carrots, cut to appr 4cm-you can use baby carrots
8-10 shallots
2 celery sticks, cut to appr 5cm
2 large garlic cloves
2 bay leaves
3-4 tbp olive oil
250 ml dry white wine
10 peppercorns
One cinnamon stick
2 sprigs thyme, parsley
Freshly ground pepper & salt
You will need cast iron casserole, if you don't have one an ovenproof dish deep enough to cover the chicken, with a lid

Method

Put the casserole on the stove and add the olive oil, allow to heat on a medium heat. Add the garlic and the chicken. You want to fry the chicken. Keep turning until it is a light golden brown colour all round. Add salt and ground pepper at this stage.
While you are doing this, pierce the shallots with the cloves.
When the chicken is done add all the vegetables, peppercorns and cinnamon around the chicken. Place the thyme and parsley at the top.
Add the wine, then add enough water to cover all the vegetables. Leave on the stove for about five minutes to heat then place in a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees. Leave to cook for 1 1/2 hours, depending on the size of the chicken.

Carve the chicken and serve with the vegetables.

TIP: Prepare all the vegetables and ingredients before you start cooking, makes the whole process so much easier