Haiku chicken

Ok, I’m naming this weirdly. But you know me, I am weird – but good. Over the course of several days I conjured up what I expected to be a comfort food dish with attitude. It worked. The inspiration came from my mom’s 50’s-style pot roast, using canned soup concentrate. It may be trailer park trash food but it’s good.

Why 5 chicken legs? Simple; that’s what was in the discounted package I got a Safeway. 6 legs would also be fine without any adjustments.

Given the recipe’s title, a poem is called for:

Take some chicken legs
Do it in chilly weather
Bring warmth to your house

Haiku chicken
5 chicken dremsticks
1 turnip, peeled and cut into ¼” half moons (substitute something else like potato if you want)
2 large stalks celery, with leaves if possible, cut into 1” pieces
1 really big carrot, cut into 1” pieces
3 or 4 garlic cloves, peeled and lightly smashed
½ medium onion, cut into half moons
black pepper
a few pinches of celery salt
2 tbsp olive oil
1 can celery soup concentrate
1 cup chicken stock

Slice each drumstick through the thick parts of the meat 2 times on each side. Brine the chicken (very important, unless it’s not). In 2 cups of water dissolve 2 tbsp kosher salt (or 1 ½ tbsp table salt), 1 tbsp black pepper and 1 tsp red pepper flakes. Put the drumsticks into a 1 gallon freezer bag. Add the brining liquid. Squeeze out as much air as possible. Put the bag into some container (just in case of leakage) and refrigerate for 2-5 hours. Remove the chicken from the bag, rinse well and dry thoroughly with paper towels.

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees.

In a pot suitable for the oven, heat the oil over medium. Add the vegetables, mixing them around in some sort of uniform fashion. Sprinkle with celery salt and pepper.

Lay the drumsticks on the vegetables. Pour the soup concentrate over the drumsticks. Add the chicken stock to the pan. Cover with a lid or foil and bake for 1 ½ hours, until the chicken is cooked to 170 degrees.

Serve over rice or, as we did, over quinoa.