Testing our new Dutch oven, with a Bahamian Chicken recipe

Yesterday I decided to try out our new Dutch oven! We bought it together with a recipe book called "Glorious One Pot Meals", which introduces a method called "infusion cooking". Basically, meat and vegetables are layered in a Dutch oven, which is then closed and heated in the oven at high temperatures for a relatively short time (usually 45 min at 450 F). It uses only small amounts of liquid and thus resembles more steaming than making a stew.

I used the recipe for "Bahamian chicken" (somebody else posted it here), for which we had most ingredients ready. I substituted cherry tomatoes and kale for the bell peppers, because that's what we had and needed to cook. We decided to use about four times the amount of listed ingredients (the linked recipe above uses twice as much as what's in the book), which filled our 6 quarts Dutch oven basically to the rim. Since we noticed halfway through that we did not have quite enough oranges & vinegar for this batch, we just added some lemon juice and mirabelle jam instead. That's also sour and fruity, and worked just fine. Cooking took considerably longer with this amount (about 1 hrs 15 min), until the potatoes were done (next time I will cut them smaller).

Everything came out nicely - the meat was cooked thoroughly and really infused with the seasoning, while the squash and broccholi were still firm. It tastes very light, thanks to the low amount of oil that is required.

I was at first sceptical whether this method is going to be any different from our slow cooker, or our much lighter metal roasting pan, but it actually is! We'll definitely experiment with it some more.

Downsides: The full cast iron pot is heavy, even heavier than the slow cooker. And other  than with the latter one, you have to actually move it while it's really hot. Maybe we'll get a smaller pot for smaller portions.

Important observation: Not only will the lid, including the handle, be hot when you take the whole thing out of the oven (at which time you'll probably be wearing oven mittens anyway), but also when you have taken out your portion and want to close the pot again (no, I didn't get any blisters, but close...).

     Christian