Hope everyone had a good weekend! For Sunday dinner I decided to use the dutch oven and make a whole chicken. Jen is a big fan of eggplant and garlic so I added the two together. Let’s cook!

French Style Chicken in Dutch Oven

1 whole chicken, giblets removed and discarded

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

1 small celery stalk, chopped

6 medium garlic cloves, peeled and trimmed

1 bay leaf

1 sprig fresh rosemary

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Pre-heat oven to 250. Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel and season with salt and pepper.

In the dutch oven over medium heat, add olive oil until just smoking.  Add the chicken breast-side down. Scatter the onion, celery, garlic, bay lead, and rosemary around the chicken.

Cook until the breast is lightly brown which takes about 5 minutes. Use a wooden spoon and insert into the cavity of the chicken, flip breast-side up and cook until chicken and vegetables are slightly brown which takes another 5 minutes.

Remove the dutch oven from the heat and place a large sheet of foil over the pot, then cover tightly with the lid and transfer to the oven.

Bake chicken for an hour and half. Once the chicken shows 160 degrees transfer the chicken to a serving plate.

Cover with foil and let rest for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, strain chicken juices from the pot throught a mesh strainer.

Add lemon juice and pour into a pan and set over low heat.

Time to make the eggplant.

Sauteed Eggplant and Roasted Garlic

1 eggplant

1 onion, sliced

1 head of garlic

1 tablespoon olive oil

Add garlic to foil

Wrap in foil the garlic and add to the oven (I did this while the chicken was cooking).

Cut the eggplant in slices then, slice the eggplant into 1/4″ slices.

In the saute pan add onions, roasted garlic, and eggplant with olive oil.

Cook until eggplant is cooked.

Time to make this meal complete. Take the jus sauce from the chicken and pour into a serving dish.

Here is the final plating:

This was a great Sunday dinner and even though it took awhile to cook, I did enjoy it.

Happy Cooking!