This is the way a chicken looks before I bury it. I could have called this succotash chicken, given that the principle ingredients other than the bird are ... wait for it ... lima beans and corn. I got a peculiar itch about a week ago. It was to cook a chicken in a fashion I had never done, never heard of, and never will I be able to sort out where this idea came from. One name for it could be smothered chicken. After all, it gets buried in a whole bunch of stuff. Let's get down to it.
Spatchcock the chicken (which is to say remove the backbone which you WILL save for stock.) Cut 1/2 a large onion into half moons. Get a 1 lb. package of lima beans out of the freezer. Get a 1 lb. package of corn out of the freezer. Get some bacon out of the fridge. Oh, get a chicken. For the first time in modern history I did not brine the bird. Get out your onion powder, garlic powder, dried tarragon, salt and pepper. That's everything you need. Preheat your oven to 275 degrees. Use a Dutch oven or other heavy oven-proof pot. Drop half of the onions in the bottom. Add some of each of your seasonings. Drop about half of the limas on that - season again. Same with the corn - season again. Lay 4 slices of bacon over the top of this stuff. Put the chicken on top, skin side up. Repeat the layers as before except start with 4 more slices of bacon. Then everything else. Put the pot, covered, in the oven for 3 hours. There you have it.
Given that limas and corn are somewhat starchy, you can consider this a one-pot meal. On the other hand, I have nothing against serving a salad alongside.
