Baby chicken one-pot

The latest dish in our saga is another rice dish.

Right now, our son just turned 9 months and my parents have been visiting for the past couple of weeks to help with watching him while my wife and I went back to work. It is great to have family visit (especially if you live flights away from all sets of grandparents) but it means that you suddenly have to cook enough for 8 servings: dinner plus lunch leftovers.

When it was just me and my wife, I used to make a lot more dishes that combine sides and main. These are easy when you are cooking ad hoc for 4 or fewer people because the heat distributes well in the amount. When you suddenly double your portions to 8, all your intuition about how long cooking takes go out the window. I have burned many dishes while the top was still cold.

I’ve been experimenting a lot with adding easy-ish sides to simpler mains as a result. I’ve found asparagus and zucchini are pretty forgiving and turn out well in the oven. Same with potatoes and broccoli and cauliflower.

So today I tried my first combination dish cooking a tiny side for our son. I made a lemony chicken and rice dish that worked well as a one-pot dish. I made asparagus separately in the oven, some steamed broccoli, and grilled zucchini. It sounds like a lot but it’s manageable because you can throw a lot of it in the oven while the rice is cooking.

For our son’s dish, I didn’t have to change much. I

  • skipped the salt for the chicken, and
  • replaced the broth with water

That’s it. I also made zucchini for him without adding salt. Since there are only 3 steps: add salt, brown in the pan, cook in the oven, that was pretty easy. Asparagus with just pepper, rosemary, and olive oil in the oven for 20–30 minutes doesn’t even need salt. And the broccoli came frozen and steamed in the bag in the microwave. It does need salt but we had to add that later anyway.

I was pretty happy with the result. I don’t think our son’s plate has ever been that full: chicken, rice, asparagus, broccoli, and zucchini.

He absolutely loves the zucchini, chicken, and rice. Although he is starting to dislike asparagus. I think it’s the texture. He hasn’t said anything yet.