Delicious, Cheap Chicken Recipe

This it the time of year for warm, nourishing, healthy meals. And most important for our purposes, frugal. Here’s a recipe for cooking chicken pieces of most any description: a whole chicken cut-up, breast or thighs, with or without bones and skin, although skinless is healthiest, of course. This is an adaptation of a Julia Child recipe ( I miss her, don’t you?). It tastes like you worked all day, but takes 25 minutes to cook, and can take as little as 10 minutes to assemble and prepare the ingredients, once you’ve done it a couple of times and are used to the procedure.

Chicken Poached in Wine with Aromatic Vegetables

Ingredients and supplies:

2 ½ to 3 ½ pounds chicken pieces (best if skinless)

One whole onion

Two or three ribs of celery

A carrot or two

Two or three cloves garlic (optional)

A cup or so of white wine, or a quarter cup of lemon juice

Two cups or so of chicken broth

One bay leaf

Two to four inches of fresh rosemary, or a tablespoon of dried

Salt and fresh-ground pepper to taste

Stove-top pot, at least three quart capacity, with a fitting lid

Music to taste, or someone to tell you a story as you cook (optional)

An additional glass of wine to drink (optional)

Prep method:

Chop onion, celery, carrots

Mince or press garlic, if desired (and who doesn’t desire garlic?)

If using fresh rosemary, cut stem into three pieces

Assembly method:

Strew 1/3 each of the garlic, carrot, celery and onion and one rosemary sprig in the bottom of pot

Place half of chicken pieces on vegetables in one layer

Salt and pepper chicken

Repeat with a second 1/3 of vegetables, another sprig of rosemary, remaining chicken, more salt and pepper.

Finish with remaining 1/3 vegetables, the last sprig of rosemary, and the bay leaf

Pour cup of white wine or ¼ cup lemon juice over all ingredients in pot

Add chicken broth to cover chicken

Cooking method:

Cover the pot with fitting lid and place on stove-top on high.

Check frequently until pot comes to a boil, then immediately turn heat to simmer or warm

Check 10 minutes after pot comes to a boil to make sure pot is simmering very gently

Check in 25 minutes by piercing chicken. If juice flows clear rather than pink, it’s done

If you cook more chicken than you can eat for one meal, cool what is left in the broth used to cook the chicken (keeps the chicken juicier), and use it for soup, salad, sandwiches, or casseroles. You can also thicken the broth and reheat the chicken in the resulting gravy to serve with pasta, potatoes, rice, or polenta. Yum.

It's easy to see that this recipe is "Froogle," and I've certainly given the "Howe" portion, but can this be a "Greene" recipe? That depends on you, actually.

Here are a few ideas:

Don't use a plastic cook-in bag,

Compost the vegetable parings and clippings,

Turn the burner off when the chicken is done,

Serve it in dishes that get washed rather than thrown away.

Any other ideas for making this an even greener way to eat?