Easy Breezy One Pan Chicken Dinner, is a great way to celebrate the up and coming American Thanksgiving. In less than two hours or so you have everything that you would want for that family of friend meal. Roasted chicken embedded in a flavorful stuffing, rosemary potatoes, baby onions, and sweet carrots. Absolutely delicious!
Song of the day: "Everyday is a Winding Road" by Sheryl Crow.
Easy Breezy One Pan Chicken Dinner is a great way to celebrate Thanksgiving dinner for those who are away from home also. Being a student usually means thin food budgets and not a lot of space to cook. Imagine a dinner that is cooked in one pan and has a main and sides all contained in one pan, and consequently, a budget-friendly meal that will feed four to six abundantly!
Remembering the days
I remember those days of being in Post Secondary school. Not much money as most went for paying for school and books. I lived at home but went to friends' places to help with dinners. I seemed to have developed a knack of making something out of nothing. I wanted to help them realize that you could put a meal together with very little because for me cooking was about heart and creativity.
I love when you are free to roam someone's fridge and pantry. What was nothing to them however was a treasure for me. A culinary playground for a soul like mine.
Why a one-pan meal?
This year I wanted to do something to ease the cost and also the time involved to make a delicious festive meal all in one pan. Fueled with those memories of student life, my mind had already painted the dinner I wanted to create.
Have you seen the cost of turkey this year? It has elevated quite substantially. I decided to go with an organic free-range chicken for this meal. A great money-saving tip is buying a whole chicken and cutting it up yourself.
Money was not my only motivation for this recipe, also technique. Being able to cook dinner all in one pan meant for me mingling flavors and keeping things snug and moist.
Our Grocery List:
- One whole free-range chicken around 3 kg
- one bag of cubed bread crumbs
- a few small yellow onions
- a few stalks of celery
- carrots
- yellow potatoes
- garlic
- spices like rosemary, sage, and thyme
- some thick-cut bacon
- salt and pepper
What we do next:
Brine the chicken in salt water. It is a good way to wash the chicken and get it ready for cooking. In the next step you will need a good knife because we are going to cut up the chicken. I start by cutting the leg and thigh, then the wings, and finally the breast. You will have 8 pieces of chicken when you are done. I left the back out and froze it for later use. Maybe a good stock for a soup, a great winter meal plan.
Seasoning all sides of the chicken pieces means ensuring loads of flavors. I use salt, pepper, paprika, dried marjoram, dried parsley, oregano, and rosemary.
A good tip:
Drizzle the chicken pieces with good olive oil and massage it in. This will help keep the chicken moist and also give you a nice roasted crispy exterior. It also helps keep all the seasoning on which you will have the pleasure to taste in every bite.
One other thing is to cook the chicken prior to adding the stuffing, potatoes, carrots, and onions. A good hot oven over 400° F will get that process of cooking the chicken well underway. Also cooking at high temperatures will give you a crispy surface, however, sealing the meat to keep it juicy and moist.
Finishing touches
The chicken has been in the oven for about half an hour. While it was cooking I made the stuffing. I started by first sauteing the onions, celery, and bacon. Then tossed that with the bread cubes, crushed rosemary, dried thyme, and sage. You have to taste it at this point and may need some salt and pepper. Not too much, because we are going to add some vegetable stock which is well seasoned. That stock will moisten the stuffing nicely and will provide a beautiful bed for the chicken to nestle in.
Take that stuffing and surround the chicken. Take the potatoes that you have already peeled, washed and cut, and place them randomly in some void spaces. This you can do also with the carrots and onions. I quartered the onions.
Does that not look so comforting and amazing? Into the oven it goes to finish cooking.
The best part
Oh, how I wish there was smell vision. I absolutely adore the aroma of all those spices of rosemary, thyme, oregano, and sage is wonderful. It smells like Thanksgiving. That stuffing has crispy bits alongside moist parts.
The potatoes steamed and roasted at the same time along with the carrots and those wonderful caramelized onions.
How about that chicken, it has that beautiful golden brown color on top and the way it was encompassed with the stuffing and veggies leads me to believe that it is so moist. My mouth is watering.
Oh my, the stuffing is wonderful. That bit of maple smokiness pairs so well with the celery, onions, and mushrooms. That bread all moist and starchy just exudes comfort even better with all those herbs.
Carrots are so tender and sweet and with the crispy yet soft middle of the potatoes, also that sweetness of caramelized onions so melt in your mouth, and delicious, these veggies take you home.
I saved the best for last. The chicken, beautifully crisp skin and surface that has nothing but crazy herb and seasoned flavors. We get to the inside and those moist juicy bites just melt and linger on my tongue.
Final Thoughts
I am feeling very satisfied and comforted. This Easy Breezy One Pan Chicken Dinner has hit all the notes I need to feel grateful and thankful. It has saved me a lot of time and kept it very budget savvy. This meal comes in at around 10-12 dollars a portion. Not bad price per person for a meal of this caliber. With the money we saved, we can get a good bottle of wine.
That in itself is something to celebrate because I did use organic and fresh ingredients.
From Nicoletta and I at Sugarlovespices, we wish you the happiest and wonderful Thanksgiving!
Cheers!
Easy Breezy One Pan Chicken Dinner
Easy Breezy One Pan Chicken Dinner, is a great way to celebrate the up and coming American Thanksgiving. In less than two hours you have everything that you would want for that family of friend meal. Roasted chicken embedded in a flavorful stuffing, rosemary potatoes, baby onions, and sweet carrots. Absolutely delicious!
- Total Time: 2 hours 5 minutes
- Yield: Serves 4-6 people 1x
Ingredients
Chicken:
- 3 kg whole organic free range chicken
- 2 Tbsp e.v.o. oil
- 2 tsp dried marjoram
- 2 tsp dried rosemary
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 2 tsp paprika
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp onion powder
- salt and freshly cracked pepper
- ⅛ cup vegetable stock
Stuffing:
- 4 thick slices of maple smoked bacon, chopped fine
- 3 stalks celery, chopped fine
- 3 small onions, chopped fine
- 8 shiitake mushrooms, chopped fine
- ½ teaspoon dried rosemary
- ½ tsp dried thyme
- ½ tsp dried sage
- salt and pepper
- 3 cups dried bread cubes
- 1 cup vegetable stock
Potatoes, carrots, and onions:
- 4 medium potatoes, cut into bite-size pieces
- 8-10 small baby carrots
- 2 small onions, quartered
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 Tbsp dried rosemary
- salt and pepper
Instructions
Chicken:
- Pre-heat the oven to 430° F.
- Drizzle a spoonful of olive oil in a large rectangular baking dish.
- Take chicken pieces and slather with the olive oil.
- Take all the herbs, spices, salt and pepper and sprinkle on all sides of the chicken.
- Place in middle rack of the oven and bake for 30 minutes.
Stuffing:
- While chicken is roasting you can start the stuffing.
- In a pan saute onions, celery, mushrooms, and bacon until all the fat of the bacon is rendered, about 10 minutes.
- Toss in bread cubes and mix well making sure they are well coated with the flavor of the bacon, celery, and onion.
- Season with the rosemary, thyme, sage, and taste for seasoning.
- Add some salt and freshly cracked black pepper.
- Let cool to the touch and start adding vegetable stock a little at a time.
- Mix and toss with hands and feel for the stuffing to come together and become somewhat soft.
- Set aside.
Veggies:
- Get a large bowl and throw in cut potatoes, carrots and onion quarters.
- Sprinkle with minced garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, and dried rosemary. Toss well and set aside.
Final stages:
- Take chicken out of the oven. Pour in the vegetable stock.
- Spread stuffing into the spaces between the chicken leaving some voids for potatoes, carrots, and onions.
- Lift chicken so that it is not buried in the stuffing. This allows it to still stay crisp on top.
- Place in potatoes, carrots, and onions and put back in the oven.
- Turn oven down to 400° F.
- Bake for 45 minutes.
- Turn heat down around the 30-minute mark to 375° F.
- Take out of the oven and it is ready to serve.
Enjoy!
Notes
- You can use turkey pieces if you don't want to use chicken.
- The stuffing can be done vegetarian just omit the bacon. The mushrooms give the stuffing a nice meatiness on their own too.
- When in the final stages of the baking just check to make sure stuffing is not getting too brown on top. If so, turn heat down or even cover with some tin foil.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
- Category: Main
- Method: Roasting
- Cuisine: American/Canadian
Keywords: Chicken, organic, stuffing, bacon, carrots, onions, potatoes, oregano, thyme, rosemary, sage, festive,
When I am not cooking, I enjoy playing musical instruments, singing, writing. I have learned over the years to live in gratitude and enjoy the moment.
Leanne | Crumb Top Baking says
I love the money saving aspect, but the one pan really appeals to me. When you're having people over during the holidays, a one-pan meal really takes the complications out of meal prepping! Thanks for sharing a great recipe!
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