Chicken potato herbed hot pot

The calendar says it’s spring, both meteorologically and astronomically. But here in Minnesota, it’s still clearly gastronomical winter. Those store displays of spindly spears of asparagus sourced from Mexico aside, when you wake up to snow in the morning, it’s clearly still time for warming comfort foods.

Plan on starting this dish about 3½ hours ahead of when you plan to eat. It will take about an hour of dawdling preparation since the onions take some time to cook, but you’ll have plenty of time to chop the next layer of ingredients while you go, and then have 2½ hours essentially hands-off. All you need is a green salad to make a lovely meal, finished off with a touch of cheese.

Herbaceous hot pot

From Better Homes & Gardens, September 2004. It's a riff on the lamb-potato hot pot of Lancashire, England. Now idea how authentic it is, but holy cow, look at those views.

Ingredients

2 onions, peeled and thickly sliced

1 large garlic clove, chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 pound mushrooms, sliced

1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves

1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves

3 large red potatoes, sliced about ¼-inch thick (about 3 cups)

5 to 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, depending on size

¼ cup dry white wine.

1 tablespoon salted butter

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Add onion and garlic and cook over medium low heat until golden. You want them very tender, but not at all crispy, so this is going to take up to a half hour or so. Remove from skillet and set aside.

In same skillet, saute mushrooms until tender. Drain off excess liquid.

In a 4-ish quart Dutch oven (I used a Le Creuset #24), place one-third of the onions in a layer across the bottom. Sprinkle with half the fresh herbs.

Top with one third of the mushrooms. Top with one third of the potatoes. Sprinkle with coarse salt and pepper.

Place chicken thighs in a layer on top of potatoes. How many you can fit will depend on the size of the pieces and the diameter of your pan. You will only have room to have them on a single layer so wedge in as many as fit. Pour wine over the top. Working in layers, top chicken with remaining onions, then remaining herbs, another sprinkle of salt and pepper, remaining mushrooms, and finish with remaining potatoes. Dot potatoes with butter.

Cover with lid and bake for 2 hours. Then uncover and bake until potatoes are golden brown and starting to crisp up, about 25 to 35 minutes.

Rating: A really excellent Sunday supper. The chicken is very tender, the mushrooms are redolent of rosemary and those onions at the bottom have caramelized in schmaltz. The layering really works its magic in this otherwise simple dish of average ingredients, with the onions dripping down to flavor the chicken, potatoes and mushrooms below, taking herbal notes along. You get two different potato textures: the softer ones below and the crispy ones on top. Definitely be making this again.

I’d say this serves 4 quite generously, since it’s so satisfying. The chicken is falling apart, so you won’t be dishing up an identifiably whole piece of chicken for anyone. I only managed to fit five thighs in a pan much more capacious than called for, but they were on the larger side.