Sunday Supper: Chicken and Potatoes
No sooner did February dawn clear and cold than I pulled down the slow cooker to make some comfort food. I have discovered that, as my tastes evolve to embrace the light and clean aesthetic of healthy cooking, I need to counter balance with the occasional hearty bowlful. As I relearn my relationship with food and apply it to the practical aspect to cooking and eating, I find that while spa cuisine resets my body, I must reset my spirit. It is no better for me to feel deprived than it is for me to feel weighed down. On this journey John and I are still learning to navigate, we try to light and clean during the week with room for indulgence in restaurant cooking on Friday or Saturday night. And on Sundays, just as my grandmother did, I make Sunday Supper.
It turns out that in this as in many things, grandma was right. Sunday Supper often has an old-fashioned, dare I say grandmotherly, quality. Some grandmas put lasagna and garlic bread on the table; some put chicken and waffles, but in its original iteration, Sunday Supper was grandma’s territory. In my grandmother’s kitchen, Sunday Supper was a pot roast with carrots and potatoes in thick brown gravy, passed with hot biscuits and jam at a table set with Sunday dishes. It had been simmering all day in a pressure cooker set up before we left for church because yes, at that American table, Sunday Supper is church food. It is meant to commemorate the day as slightly special, part of the Sabbath observation of those times and that place. A common practice was supper on the ground, where the congregation spent most of the day together on the church grounds. Matriarchs served a nonstop potluck of their best efforts, from ham sliced at the table to blue ribbon pies and cakes.
Just as some Sundays are for church and same are for football games, so are the Sunday suppers served as varied as how Sunday is observed. When I arrived in New York City, I learned that Sunday is as special in the city as it is in a small town. Sunday in New York is a phenomenon unto itself, comprising museums and matinees, leafy walks and sidewalk cafes, and not insignificantly shifts for workers on Sunday schedules. I passed countless Sunday afternoons in Village coffeehouses, writing in journals I still have. As we gathered our forces for the evening and the week ahead, we’d gather together for a Sunday supper of dinner at the pub. That presaged Sunday Funday, the Los Angeles celebration of the nadir of the week, where the music starts at brunch and the Bloody Marys don’t stop flowing until the drag show wraps up around midnight.
LA Sunday is truly a fun day, but nowadays John and I find ourselves spending most Sundays at home. It is necessary to recharge for the week to come, from the trials of the Monday morning commute to the hopeful glimmer of Hump Day. There is much to recommend Sunday at home. How lovely it is to clean house, restock the pantry, tend to the car, work on projects from mending to model trains that wait as patiently for Sunday progress and we waited out the progression to Sunday. Our beloved old movies play at low volume in the living room, inspiring us with style, substance, and comfort as we pass through. Throughout the remainder of our urban home, the music system plays a Sunday playlist comprised of jazz, American standards, show tunes, lounge, and classic pop. How lovely it is in the morning, coffee perked and paper scanned, to move into the day by setting up supper for the evening. As I take the slow cooker or stew pot down from the shelf, I echo my grandmother setting up the pressure cooker with its clamps and dials.
As Sunday supper cooks throughout the day, it fills the home with the rich aromas of the evening’s meal, a promise that does much to mitigate the Sunday blues. We come to the table in celebration of the weekend just passed and in preparation for the week to come, and with gratitude for all we have. Here is the second of three recipes for Sunday Supper: a French inspired dish of chicken, potatoes, and mushrooms, fragrant with herbs and rich with white wine. Serve it with a simple salad such as arugula- or green salad, paired with a crisp Sauvignon Blanc and followed with apple tarts.
Slow Cooker Chicken and Potatoes
2 bone-in chicken breasts
3/4 pound baby potatoes, such as Yukon Gold or Red Bliss
3/4 pound mushrooms, such as white button, bella, crimini, or a mixture, cleaned and trimmed
2 medium shallots, peeled, cored, and minced
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1-1/2 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup dry vermouth
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
4 clove garlic, peeled and pithed
1 sprig fresh rosemary
2 - 3 sprigs fresh thyme
Fresh or dried tarragon
Coarse salt, such as sea- or kosher-
Freshly ground black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
6 hours before serving
Slow Cooker Cuban Pork Stew
Slow Cooker Pot Roast
Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore
It turns out that in this as in many things, grandma was right. Sunday Supper often has an old-fashioned, dare I say grandmotherly, quality. Some grandmas put lasagna and garlic bread on the table; some put chicken and waffles, but in its original iteration, Sunday Supper was grandma’s territory. In my grandmother’s kitchen, Sunday Supper was a pot roast with carrots and potatoes in thick brown gravy, passed with hot biscuits and jam at a table set with Sunday dishes. It had been simmering all day in a pressure cooker set up before we left for church because yes, at that American table, Sunday Supper is church food. It is meant to commemorate the day as slightly special, part of the Sabbath observation of those times and that place. A common practice was supper on the ground, where the congregation spent most of the day together on the church grounds. Matriarchs served a nonstop potluck of their best efforts, from ham sliced at the table to blue ribbon pies and cakes.
Just as some Sundays are for church and same are for football games, so are the Sunday suppers served as varied as how Sunday is observed. When I arrived in New York City, I learned that Sunday is as special in the city as it is in a small town. Sunday in New York is a phenomenon unto itself, comprising museums and matinees, leafy walks and sidewalk cafes, and not insignificantly shifts for workers on Sunday schedules. I passed countless Sunday afternoons in Village coffeehouses, writing in journals I still have. As we gathered our forces for the evening and the week ahead, we’d gather together for a Sunday supper of dinner at the pub. That presaged Sunday Funday, the Los Angeles celebration of the nadir of the week, where the music starts at brunch and the Bloody Marys don’t stop flowing until the drag show wraps up around midnight.
LA Sunday is truly a fun day, but nowadays John and I find ourselves spending most Sundays at home. It is necessary to recharge for the week to come, from the trials of the Monday morning commute to the hopeful glimmer of Hump Day. There is much to recommend Sunday at home. How lovely it is to clean house, restock the pantry, tend to the car, work on projects from mending to model trains that wait as patiently for Sunday progress and we waited out the progression to Sunday. Our beloved old movies play at low volume in the living room, inspiring us with style, substance, and comfort as we pass through. Throughout the remainder of our urban home, the music system plays a Sunday playlist comprised of jazz, American standards, show tunes, lounge, and classic pop. How lovely it is in the morning, coffee perked and paper scanned, to move into the day by setting up supper for the evening. As I take the slow cooker or stew pot down from the shelf, I echo my grandmother setting up the pressure cooker with its clamps and dials.
As Sunday supper cooks throughout the day, it fills the home with the rich aromas of the evening’s meal, a promise that does much to mitigate the Sunday blues. We come to the table in celebration of the weekend just passed and in preparation for the week to come, and with gratitude for all we have. Here is the second of three recipes for Sunday Supper: a French inspired dish of chicken, potatoes, and mushrooms, fragrant with herbs and rich with white wine. Serve it with a simple salad such as arugula- or green salad, paired with a crisp Sauvignon Blanc and followed with apple tarts.
Slow Cooker Chicken and Potatoes
2 bone-in chicken breasts
3/4 pound baby potatoes, such as Yukon Gold or Red Bliss
3/4 pound mushrooms, such as white button, bella, crimini, or a mixture, cleaned and trimmed
2 medium shallots, peeled, cored, and minced
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1-1/2 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup dry vermouth
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
4 clove garlic, peeled and pithed
1 sprig fresh rosemary
2 - 3 sprigs fresh thyme
Fresh or dried tarragon
Coarse salt, such as sea- or kosher-
Freshly ground black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
6 hours before serving
- Measure 1/2 cup coarse salt into a large bowl. Add 1 cup water; whisk to dissolve the salt.
- Place the chicken breasts into the salt water, bone-in side facing up.
- Add water to the bowl to cover the chicken breasts by 1 inch.
- Cover the bowl with a double layer of plastic wrap. Carefully transfer to the refrigerator for 2 hours.
- Place the potatoes into an in-sink colander. Rinse the potatoes and pick clean of sprouts or brown spots if any.
- Cover the rinsed, picked potatoes with paper towels and leave in the colander to dry.
- Brush the interior of the slow cooker's cooking vessel with extra-virgin olive oil.
- In a large mixing cup with a spout, measure the stock, vermouth, and lemon juice together.
- Transfer the potatoes and shallots to the slow cooker. Drizzle the potatoes and shallots with olive oil, a sprinkling of salt, and several grindings of fresh black pepper.
- Press the garlic cloves into the slow cooker. Stir the mixture together.
- Carefully remove the bowl containing the brined chicken breasts from the refrigerator. Carefully remove the chicken breasts from the brine, holding each over the bowl so that brining liquid if any drips off. Do not rinse the chicken breasts.
- Place the chicken breasts into the slow cooker, bone-in side down.
- Drizzle the breasts with extra-virgin olive oil and several grindings of fresh black pepper.
- Nestle the herb sprigs into the mixture in the slow cooker.
- Gently pour the stock mixture into the slow cooker to cover the chicken and potatoes by 1 inch.
- Cover the slow cooker. Program to cook 4 hours on low.
- Melt the butter in a saute pan.
- Add the mushrooms to the pan and sprinkle the mushrooms with the salt.
- Saute the mushrooms just until they release their liquid, approximately four minutes.
- Transfer the sauteed mushrooms and cooking liquid to the slow cooker.
- Once chicken is cooked through, transfer each chicken breast to a bowl.
- Spoon vegetables, mushrooms, and sauce into each bowl. Discard any stems from the fresh herbs.
- Top each serving with several grindings of fresh black pepper, a dash of coarse salt, and a sprinkle of tarragon.
Slow Cooker Cuban Pork Stew
Slow Cooker Pot Roast
Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore
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