First we’d like to salute
our terrific Mystery Lovers Kitchen Colleagues: Sheila Connolly and Daryl Wood
Gerber who will both be releasing new books next week. Sheila is giving us Picked
to Die, one of her terrific apple mysteries while Daryl is Stirring the Plot, from the delicious Cookbook Nook
series. We thought of them both because of the apples and the cookbooks when we
were working on this recipe. We know
they’ll do well. Hats off to you, friends!
This is our favorite
family Sunday meal for Fall. We are always dragged out of summer kicking and
whimpering, but Fall is a wonderful time for food and flavor, including apples.
This time, the day was so dark, wet and dreary that for our Sunday lunch, we
had the candles lit. It is a meal that makes you appreciate those dark days.
We love it because we get to use our Dutch oven.
And the cooked apples are silky and delicious. It’s also easy to make. It would
make great leftovers, but we’ve never any to confirm this. Again, let me say,
it passes the mother-in-law test with flying colors.
Plus we were ready for a
relaxing weekend after the release and launch party for The Wolfe Widow,
the third in our book collector mystery series.
Ingredients
1 whole
chicken, about 4 pounds
1
teaspoon chopped fresh thyme (or dried)
Salt and
freshly ground pepper
2
tablespoons butter
4 apples,
peeled and diced (We like Galas or Fujis for this recipe. You can get by with
as few as two apples, but we love it this way)
2
tablespoons cider vinegar
½ cup
chicken stock
1 bay
leaf
Preheat
oven to 350 F. Pat chicken dry. Sprinkle chicken with thyme, salt and pepper.
Heat butter over medium high heat in a Dutch oven or ovenproof pot large enough
to hold the chicken. Brown chicken on all sides, about 2 minutes a side, until
golden.
Remove
chicken from pot. Add apples and sauté for about 3 or 4 minutes or until
lightly golden.
Add cider vinegar, chicken stock and bay leaf and bring to
boil. Return chicken to pot,
cover and bake in the oven for 1 hour.
Remove
cover and bake another 15 minutes or until juices run clear. Cut chicken into 4
portions and transfer to a platter and serve with apples and sauce over.
Pretty
easy! It’s a rich and tasty main, so we add simple sides: a crisp green salad,
fresh tomatoes, that kind of thing. But it does buddy up nicely with rice or
potatoes. You can see how it warmed up our room!
After
this lunch and the lemon dessert (coming soon to a Mystery Lovers Kitchen near
you) , MJ curled up with a good book: A Clutch of Constables by Ngaio Marsh,
research for our next Book Collector Mystery: The Marsh Madness, a work in progress.
Shall we
meet in the reading corner on a dark and dreary day?
We hope
you’ll be trying The Wolfe Widow, our September release. Just be very careful if the doorbell rings.
Walter really wants you to.
