My giant One Two Three Chicken will soon be your best friend!
It includes a wonderful grouping of my great favorite no-brainer cooking-without-cooking stovetop, Moroccan-style dishes. We grew up eating these scrumptious naive-style tajines, nutritiously and deliciously. I have included here not only an enormous selection of vegetables to go with the chicken, but I also have included beef, lamb and fish adaptation.
When I say One Two Three chicken, I mean it quite literally!
When Mom was too busy to fuss, this is what we ate, and to this day I never tire of it, or think it will be boring, Heaven Forbid, even as I cook up a storm. It illustrates perfectly how a finished dish can be so much more than the sum of its parts, however modest, and what wonderful things happen when you let each ingredient shine on its own, without any competition whatsoever, even if you are not a cook! The ingredient list in these dishes is so short and the prep work so minimal it just can’t get any simpler, or more delicious. Talk about minimalism! Simplicity and elegance all rolled into one.
It doesn’t hurt that all my one two three chicken dishes are gluten-free, and all but a couple are no-carb.
Once in a great while, I “cheat”, and turn my one two three chicken into a one-two-three-four dish, just by tweaking the selections below and making some judicious combinations, and proceed just as instructed: carrots and turnips; artichokes and mushrooms; tomatoes and fennel; Swiss chard and celery. You get the idea: Short short short selection!
Choosing your pot: Please read my blog post about it, you will find it most helpful!
Turmeric: We grew up with “yellow food” and were practicing good nutrition without even knowing it.
Those of you who saw the wonderful Indian movie Water will remember the wedding scene where all the dinner guests got their foreheads smeared with turmeric—a symbol, as it was explained, of good health and immunity. The health community is finally paying great attention to turmeric, the greatest antioxidant and anti-inflammatory of all: I can’t praise it highly enough. I throw it in as many dishes as I possibly can: While it does its magic, it hardly affects the flavor of the food, if at all—it just imparts a yellow color and a slight bulk to the texture of the finished sauce.
Ingredients
The chicken and celery recipe below will be your guide:
All subsequent recipes in this chapter will follow exact same instructions.
ONE TWO THREE CHICKEN AND CELERY
Ingredients:
- 12 serving pieces chicken, thighs, drumsticks, half breasts— 12 pieces total for 6 people), with skin on
- 2 pouches Levana Nourishments Garden Vegetable
2 teaspoons turmeric
2 whole bunches celery, ribs peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks, or 2 large heads celery root, peeled and cut into inch cubes
3 cups water
Instructions
Bring all ingredients to boil in a wide heavy pot.
Reduce the flame to medium and cook, covered, for about 1 hour.
Transfer the chicken pieces onto a platter with a slotted spoon. If the sauce is not thick enough, reduce it on a high flame, uncovered, just a few minutes, until it reaches the consistency of maple syrup. Pour the sauce over the chicken. Serve hot. Makes 6 servings.
Fish lovers:
Follow the one two three chicken recipes below using 6 6-ounce servings of firm-flesh fish such as tilapia, salmon, scrod, bass, etc., instead of chicken, but add ¼ cup olive oil to the pot. Transfer the fish with a slotted spoon onto a platter after 20 minutes of cooking, and cook the rest of the dish as instructed below.
Meat lovers:
Follow the recipes below using cubed beef, lamb, or bison instead of chicken. Cook the meat (about 3 pounds) alone in 6 cups of water for 2 hours and then add the other ingredient of your choice plus turmeric to the pot and cook as instructed below. Here the water used is the meat’s cooking liquid. Add some water if necessary when adding the vegetable if you ran out of liquid.
CHICKEN AND ONIONS
Same as chicken and celery, substituting 3 large onions, very thinly sliced, for the celery.
CHICKEN AND POTATOES
Same as chicken and celery, substituting 2 pounds unpeeled organic new potatoes (only organic potatoes are safe with their skin on)—the smaller the better—for the celery.
CHICKEN AND SWEET POTATOES
Same as chicken and celery, substituting 2–3 large sweet potatoes, cut into inch chunks, for the celery.
CHICKEN AND FENNEL
Same as chicken and celery, substituting 2 heads of fennel—hard core discarded, very thinly sliced—for
the celery.
CHICKEN AND MUSHROOMS
Same as chicken and celery, substituting 2 pounds whole domestic or cremini mushrooms—the smaller
the better—for the celery.
CHICKEN AND SWISS CHARD
Same as chicken and celery, substituting 2 large bunches Swiss chard (or kale, or collard greens, or mustard
greens) leaves and ribs, sliced thin, for the celery.
CHICKEN AND CARROTS
Same as chicken and celery, using 2 pounds thin (not baby !) carrots, cut into 2-inch segments.
CHICKEN AND TURNIPS
Same as chicken and celery, substituting a large rutabaga (yellow wax turnip), cut into inch cubes, for the celery.
CHICKEN AND TOMATOES
Same as chicken and celery, substituting 4 large beefsteak tomatoes or 12 plum tomatoes, diced small, for the celery.
CHICKEN AND PLANTAINS
Same as chicken and celery, substituting 6 medium-ripe plantains, cut into 2-inch segments, for the celery.
CHICKEN AND OLIVES
Same as chicken and celery, substituting 2 cups good-quality pitted green olives, thoroughly rinsed, for the celery.
CHICKEN AND GARLIC
Same as chicken and celery, substituting 3 heads of garlic, all cloves separated and peeled, for the celery. When reducing the sauce at the end of cooking, mash the garlic cloves thoroughly with a fork, then pour the sauce over the chicken.
CHICKEN AND ARTICHOKES
Cook the chicken with the turmeric and water and add 2 pounds quartered frozen artichoke bottoms or
whole frozen artichoke hearts in the last 15 minutes of cooking.
CHICKEN AND CORN
Cook the chicken with the turmeric and water and add 2 pounds frozen corn kernels in the last 15 minutes of cooking.
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