Monday, April 27, 2009

Dutch Oven Chicken Recipes, Part I

Dutch Oven Fried Chicken, Wrapped in Bacon

In an effort to start establishing some "pillar content" here at the black pot, I'm embarking on a series of series. Each one will be three to four entries long, and I might even mix them up a bit.

There are three basic types of typical meat dishes, and I'll be cooking and publishing some good ones of each kind: Chicken recipes, beef recipes, and pork and ham recipes. When all that's done, I might just add in some seafood recipes.

Sorry, vegans. I'm a carnivore.

The first one is a very delicious and very, very simple one, too, so it also falls in the "basic dutching" category.

Jodi and I were attending a local expo, and there were some cooking demonstrations going on. I, of course, was enthralled. Jodi, not so much. But she sat there and endured it, and when the chef was all done and she tried what he'd been cooking, she was enthralled, too. We exchanged glances, and it was clear to both of us what I'd be cooking for sunday dinner!

Dutch Oven Fried Chicken, Wrapped in Bacon

12" Dutch Oven
18-22 coals underneath, no coals on top, lid off.


1-1 1/2 lbs chicken breasts (about one piece per serving)
1 lb thick-sliced, peppered bacon (you can use thin, unpeppered, if you must)
Salt
Juice of 2-3 lemons

You'll also need some wooden skewers


This one was so simple it was almost embarrassing. But it is soo, sooo good.

I used boneless, frozen chicken Breasts. The chef at the expo used chicken Tenderloins. If I'd had any, I probably would have, too, because they're already the size and shape you need. As it was, I had to use breasts.

I thawed them, and once they were thawed, I lit up the coals. I came in and sliced the chicken into thirds in such a way as to have them be shaped in long, thick strips.

Then, I picked up a skewer, and a strip of bacon, and poked through one end of the bacon strip. Then I skewered through the chicken piece, so the skewer ran through the length of the chicken and came out the other end. I wrapped the bacon tightly around the chicken to about half way, when the strip ran out. Then, I stuck another piece of bacon on the skewer on the other end, and wound it tightly back to the middle. I shaped it a bit with my hand, and it sayed pretty well.

Finally, I broke off the skewer so that there wasn't much wood on either end of the chicken. Just enough to hold the bacon in place. I put that into my dutch oven. I repeated that process until I ran out of either chicken strips or bacon strips. In this case, I had one strip of chicken left over, and no room left in the dutch oven.

By then, my coals were hot, so I poured a bunch of them out of my chimney and onto my little dutch oven table. I put the dutch oven on top, and soon they started frying.

This is really so simple, because really, I was using the dutch oven as if it were a skillet.

Before long, it was crackling and sizzling. Bit by bit, I turned them with a short set of tongs (don't use, please, the same tongs you use for the coals!). If I were to do this again, I'd let them cook pretty well on each side before turning them, because that would help the bacon to stay in place. As it was, I was impatient, and some of the pieces unraveled a bit.

After they'd been cooking on a couple of sides, I got out the lemons. Actually, this time, I had a bottle of lemon juice, but if I'd had them, I'd have used fresh lemons. Nonetheless, I splattered some juice over the chicken pieces. That, of course, set up new waves of sizzling, and a lucious new wave of smells, to mix with the bacon, the chicken, and the pepper. Finally, after 20 to 30 minutes, it was done, and I brought it in.

It was way, way delicous, and it was so simple. You can't go wrong with this one. I also made a potato salad out of bacon and blue cheese. The chef at the demo had also done this. It was great, and also simple, but I'll save that recipe for another day!

4 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Hi, sorry I removed my previous post, I failed to preview it and it read badly - so I just want to tell you how much I enjoy your blog.

    I am going to try your chicken recipe but I'll be cooking it in a cast iron dutch oven in the oven - I don't have access to a outside campfire right now to cook as you do. We love to camp and I enjoy reading your experiences.

    Thanks again for the wonderful recipes. They're great!

    Jean

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  3. My son came up with this to do with conventional cookware indoors. Only he made a filling of cream cheese and diced jalepeno peppers, spread it onto the chicken breasts before you roll them up. We then tried cooking them in a dutch oven. (very similar to your cooking instructions) It turn out awesome, and the jalepenos add some extra kick. Enjoy!

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  4. Thanks for posting that. My wife and I both agree that it would be delicious! We'll have to try it!

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