This recipe for roast chicken from Cook’s Illustrated magazine adapts a French technique for cooking a whole bird in a cast-iron Dutch oven, a method that ensures terrifically moist, succulent results.

LARRY CROWE / Ap

French Chicken in a Pot from Cook’s Illustrated uses the French technique of roasting a whole chicken in a Dutch oven.

The cooking times are for a 41/2- to 5-pound bird. A 31/2- to 41/2-pound chicken will take about an hour to cook, and a 5- to 6-pound bird will take close to 2 hours.

Use a 5- to 8-quart Dutch oven with a tight-fitting lid.

French Chicken in a Pot

Start to finish: 2 hours (20 minutes active)

Servings: 4

1 whole roasting chicken (41/2 to 5 pounds), giblets removed and discarded, wings tucked under back

2 teaspoons kosher salt or 1 teaspoon table salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 small onion, chopped (about 1/2 cup)

1 small celery stalk, chopped (about 1/4 cup)

6 medium garlic cloves, peeled and trimmed

1 bay leaf

1 medium sprig fresh rosemary (optional)

1/2 to 1 teaspoon lemon juice

1. Adjust an oven rack to lowest position. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.

2. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper.

3. In a large Dutch oven over medium, heat the oil until just smoking. Add the chicken, breast-side down. Scatter the onion, celery, garlic, bay leaf, and rosemary around chicken.

4. Cook until the breast is lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Using a wooden spoon inserted into cavity of bird, flip chicken breast-side up and cook until chicken and vegetables are well browned, 6 to 8 minutes.

5. Remove the Dutch oven from the heat. Place a large sheet of foil over the pot, then cover tightly with the lid.

6. Transfer the pot to the oven and cook until an instant-read thermometer registers 160 degrees when inserted in thickest part of breast and 175 degrees in thickest part of thigh, about 80 to 110 minutes.

7. Transfer the chicken to carving board, tent with foil and let rest for 20 minutes.

8. Meanwhile, strain chicken juices from the pot through fine-mesh strainer into a fat separator, pressing on solids to extract liquid. Discard the solids. You should have about 3/4 cup of juices).

9. Allow the liquid to settle 5 minutes, then pour into a saucepan and set over low heat.

10. Carve the chicken, adding any accumulated juices to the saucepan. Stir lemon juice into the saucepan to create the jus, or sauce. Serve the chicken, passing jus at table.

DYLAN SPECIAL!!!  Even though we shared an Apple Pie Recipe a while back, Dylan had a special request and we asked our resident chef to whip up a recipe.

Dutch Oven- Apple Crisp

What you’ll need…

• 6 apples
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp nutmeg
• 3 cup quick oats
• 1 cup flour
• 2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 cup butter

Instructions…

1. Slice apples.
2. Mix apple slices, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a bowl.
3. Mix oats, flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and butter to make crust.
4. Press half the crust mix into the bottom and sides of the Dutch oven.
5. Pour the apples onto the crust.
6. Cover apples with the rest of the crust mix.
7. Bake covered about 45 minutes at 350 degrees, until top crust is light brown and apples are tender.

Serves about 8

This month we take a step away from the Dutch Oven and go with something you just need a pot for…without further adieu, may I present:

Squash & White Bean Soup

Adapted from a recipe by Diane of Daisy Farm in Victoria, B.C., Canada

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Makes: 4 servings

Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion, cumin, and garlic and sauté for five minutes.

Add squash, salt, pepper, broth, and tomatoes and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until squash is tender, about 30 minutes.

With the baseball playoffs here, we thought it was time for some Apple Pie, because nothing says America like Apple Pie and Baseball, right?

Ingredients

3 cans sugar free apple pie filling
1 box Golden Vanilla Cake mix
3/4 stick butter
1 tsp cinnamon

Directions

Melt 2 tbsp of butter in cast iron dutch oven. Put 3 cans of apple pie filling in dutch oven sprinkled with 1 tsp cinnamon. Pour cake mix (dry) over apples. Cut remaining butter into small pieces and evenly top dry cake mix. Cover with dutch oven lid. Place dutch oven over hot coals and top with about 8-10 pieces of charcoal that have ashed over. Keep covered & cook about 45-60 minutes until filling is bubbly and “crust” is light golden. Great topped with a little whipped cream or ice cream!

Number of Servings: 16

Recipe submitted by LANE  YTEN

Ingredients

1 lb. bacon or sausage
2 or more cups of cheese
5 whole potatoes
a dozen eggs

Equipment

1 skillet and stove
1 dutch oven
1 metal spoon

Instructions

line the dutch oven with aluminum foil
pre-heat the dutch oven to 375
pre-cook the bacon or sasauge
dice the potatoes with out peeling
add the eggs, potatoes, bacon, and cheese into the dutch oven
cook for 15 minutes or until potatoes are hot and eggs are done

Comment: feeds 5-7 people

How about surprising your family with pizza while camping? I used a pre-made pizza crust that comes in a tube. When going camping, that is a lot easier than taking flour and the other ingredients to make pizza dough. Remember, any type of pizza that you can make at home, you can make in a Dutch Oven!

Dutch Oven Pizza

Vegetable oil
Tube of pre-made pizza crust
Small can of tomato sauce
Shredded mozzarella cheese
Grated cheddar cheese
Garlic powder
Salt and Pepper to taste
Sliced onions
Pepperoni Slices

It’s time for some campsite fine dining!

Take a chocolate box cake mix and make it according to the directions on the back. Pour the batter into a DO and top it with small cubed pieces of cream cheese. Bake it in the DO at 350 for around 25 to 30 minutes, turning the DO a quarter turn every 7 minutes. You know the cake is done when it starts to pull away from the sides of the pan. Don’t overcook! Invert the cake onto the lid of the DO and let cool. Once cool, split the cake in half and pour half of a can of cherry pie filling into the middle.

Top with the second half of the cake. Frost with whipped chocolate frosting and top with remaining cherries. If you don’t want to go to the trouble of filling the cake, just frost it whole once it’s cooled and pour the cherry filling on top.