One-Pot Chicken with Beans & Vegetables

Need an easy weeknight supper recipe? Here's a great one, protein and produce that cook together either in the oven or a slow cooker, served straight from the pot to the table. It's a healthy Italian-style chicken stew, fortified with canned beans and a few common vegetables. We love this year-round but it's lighter than other stews so it's a great choice during a winter-to-spring "transition". The star ingredient? A bottle of Italian dressing!

Whole Food, Simply Prepared. "Plain" But Perfect. Homestyle Food, Fresh & Family-Approved. A Long-Time Family Favorite. Another Quick Supper, a Kitchen Parade Specialty. Hearty & Filling. Year-Round Kitchen Staple. Budget Friendly. Weeknight Easy, Weekend Special. One-Pot Meal. Perfect When Cooking for One or Two. Low Carb. Low Fat. High Protein. Weight Watchers Friendly. Naturally Gluten Free. Rave Reviews. So Good!!

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COMPLIMENTS!

• "The chicken with white beans was delicious." ~ Joan
• "... making [it] again tomorrow." ~ Karen

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Life-Changing Vinaigrette: Homemade, Of Course

A decade ago, my food life was forever changed – for the better – by one simple recipe.

St. Louis food writer Ann Lemons wrote a piece for the local paper’s Sunday magazine. She roughed out the concept for making a simple vinaigrette, a rub of garlic, a dollop of mustard, a scratch of good salt, a splash of vinegar and a glug of olive oil. Sound familiar? It’s My Favorite Salad Dressing. I make it nearly every day, some times twice a day, right in the salad bowl. It’s that simple.

Ever since, I never buy salad dressing. It’s too expensive, too filled with calories, too packed with chemical-sounding ingredients. I’ve even challenged others to Never Buy Salad Dressing Again!

A New Pantry Ingredient: Italian Dressing

So – um – why does this easy chicken recipe call for a commercial salad dressing, the ubiquitous Italian dressing?

Well – um, you see – stuff happens. My dad left a bottle in my fridge and ever the thrifty cook, I wanted it to use it up. Ha. I’ve been ruined. Thanks to this recipe, I foresee keeping a bottle on hand. For. Ever. For. Always.

This chicken is so good – the perfect dinner recipe for a harried cook pulled in 360 directions by kids, work and other responsibilities.

The beans and vegetables simmer in an almost lemony sauce, even as the chicken absorbs moisture from below. The kitchen smells so nice! There’s no getting enough!

Here, it's my go-dinner when we're just back from vacation. We're hungry for healthy home-cooked food but the fridge is empty ... except for carrots, celery and turnip (they keep, people!). I thaw some chicken, open a bottle of dressing, stir it all together, pull some cooked rice out of the freezer and just like that, supper is served.

RESOURCES One things leads to another and now there are several recipes that call for Italian dressing, see Italian Dressing.

About This Recipe: One-Pot Chicken with Beans & Vegetables

• This is an easy, hearty weeknight supper, both protein and vegetables mixed, baked and served in a single pan or mixed and slow-cooked in a slow cooker.
• Distinctive Ingredients = Chicken (bone-in with skins removed) + White Beans (like cannellini or navy or northern) + Italian Dressing (full-fat, low-fat or non-fat) + Vegetables (carrot, celery, turnip + asparagus for on top)
• Short Ingredient List = all the above + salt & pepper + whole or ground dried rosemary
• For Garnish = a little bit of chopped parsley, optional, for color only
• Kitchen Tools = a large, shallow oven-safe skillet or casserole dish with an oven-safe lid (or foil) ~ or ~ a slow cooker
• Time Requirements = it takes about 20 minutes to prep this simple, tasty meal, then it spends an hour in the oven or about 6 hours in a slow cooker.
• This dish isn't especially pretty, a little bit of green on top for garnish helps.
• No special techniques are used for this recipe, just toss it all together and toss it in the oven or a slow cooker.
• This is pantry-friendly recipe, even the vegetables are easy to keep on hand for a week or more.
• This is a calorie-friendly recipe, a protein plus cooked vegetables for about 225 calories.
• This is a budget-friendly recipe, no unusual ingredients to seek out and keep on hand, no pricey ingredients.
• As written, the recipe is written to serve 8 but it's easily halved for 4 or halved again for 2 but the leftovers reheat well, I'm always glad to make extra for another meal or a quick lunch at home or to carry.
• That means that this recipe works especially well for those Cooking for One or Two.
• So good! I hope you love it!


• Love the one-dish concept for chicken and vegetables? Me too! Check out Rainbow Chicken, same concept but a completely different flavors.
• Not quite what you're looking for? Check out my other chicken recipes.

For Best Results

For my weekly column in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, I interviewed chefs and translated their restaurant recipes for home kitchens. The most illuminating question? "How can a home cook ensure the same results?" So now I ask that question of myself, too, for my own recipes. Have another question? Ask away, I'll do my best to answer!

Use Bone-In Chicken But skins off! At least in my usual grocery stores, unfortunately this means buying bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces, then pulling the skins off. It doesn't take long but yeah, it's not my favorite thing either. But! It is important. First bone-in chicken imparts flavor in a way that boneless chicken doesn't. For anyone who just can't bear tearing off the skins, I'd recommend buying boneless, skinless chicken thighs, no boneless, skinless plain breasts, please!

Use White Beans Take heed here, because usually, substituting one type of canned bean for another is something good cooks do without hesitation. But not here. White-colored beans like cannellini (some times called white kidney beans) and navy beans and white northern beans are just softer than other beans, including red kidney beans. Here, softness is a good thing, it allows the beans to soak up the flavors of the sauce that includes Italian dressing

Be Sure the Beans and Vegetables Are Fully Coated with the Sauce In early versions of this recipe, I put chicken, beans and vegetables in the baking dish and drizzled the sauce over top. This meant that some times the beans and even some of the vegetables on the top just didn't get enough moisture and dried out in the baking process. Once I realized, I switched up the recipe to mix the beans, vegetables and sauce ingredients and spread the combined mixture across the chicken. Much better!

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How do you save and share favorite recipes? recipes that fit your personal cooking style? a particular recipe your mom or daughter or best friend would just love? If this recipe inspires you, please do save and share! I'd be honored ...

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Hungry Yet?
An Easy Weeknight Menu

One-Pot Chicken with Beans & Vegetables
(recipe below)
with
Oven-Baked Brown Rice
(same temperature! same timing!)

Easy-Easy Artichoke & Tomato Salad
Light 'n' Easy Chocolate Pudding

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QUICK SUPPER:
ONE-POT CHICKEN with BEANS & VEGETABLES

Hands-on time: 20 minutes
Time to table: 90 minutes (oven, slightly preferred) to 6 hours (slow cooker)
Serves 8 (but easily halved)

CHICKEN
• 2-1/2 pounds bone-in chicken pieces (thighs, legs or breasts, 8 pieces total, skins removed)
• Salt & pepper to taste

SAUCE
• 2/3 cup low-fat Italian dressing (use 1 cup for the slow cooker; non-fat and full-fat dressings work fine too)
• 2 teaspoons dried whole rosemary, crushed, or ground rosemary (don’t skip)
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 - 1 teaspoon ground black pepper (don't skip)

BEANS & VEGETABLES
• 2 15-ounce cans white beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 carrots, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 2 ribs celery, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 turnip, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
• Other vegetables, optional, cut small
• Asparagus spears, optional, for the top

FOR SERVING
• A little chopped fresh parsley, optional, for color only

CHICKEN If cooking in the oven (see ALANNA's TIPS), heat the oven to 350F/180C.

Arrange the chicken pieces in the bottom of a large braising pan or a slow cooker. Season with salt and pepper.

SAUCE In a large bowl, give all the Sauce ingredients a quick stir.

BEANS & VEGETABLES Stir the beans, carrots, celery, turnip and any other vegetables into the Sauce.

COMBINE Spread the bean-vegetable-Sauce mixture evenly across the chicken pieces. If using asparagus spears on top, arrange them across the dish.

OVEN (preferred) Cover and bake for 1 hour. Serve tableside immediately; otherwise, reduce the oven temperature to 180F/80C hold for up to about 30 minutes. Once done, sprinkle with fresh parsley if using.

~ or ~

SLOW COOKER (almost as good) Cover and cook on Low for about 5 hours. For best texture, add the turnips for only the last two hours. Once done, sprinkle with fresh parsley if using.

LEFTOVERS What's left over re-heats beautifully!

ALANNA’s TIPS For this recipe, I recommend using bone-in chicken which remains moist and tender during cooking. Boneless chicken pieces, especially boneless breasts, dry out and get tough. When I started making One-Pot Chicken, I always browned the chicken pieces first. Then, after making Rainbow Chicken, another chicken 'n' vegetables one-pot supper, I wondered if here, too, we might skip the first step of cooking the chicken. We can! And with no impact on how very (very!) delicious the chicken turns out. Yay! Plus there's a saving in calories too, since we don't need oil to cook the chicken. If you do brown the chicken before assembling everything, switch the order, the beans and vegetables first (without the Sauce), then nestle in the chicken pieces, then top with the Sauce. To my taste, the preferred cooking method is in the oven. The chicken stays moist and the vegetables cook just enough. The softer texture of white beans is important to this dish. Substituting the more mealy red kidney beans, say, is not recommended. (Who'd think?) Save a dish? This is for the oven version. Right in the baking dish, mix the Sauce ingredients, then stir in the vegetables and beans, then tuck the chicken pieces into the mixture, covering the chicken almost completely. For carrots, much to my surprise whole carrots (peeled and cut up) cook better than so-called baby carrots, despite being approximately the same size. It's long been difficult to find small chicken breasts, you'll probably want to cut each breast into a four-ounce serving. More recently, the same is becoming true for chicken thighs. With their bones in, this isn't that easy to do so when portion size is important, I usually remove the chicken pieces once they're cooked then "pull" the meat off the bone.

FOR MORE INFO If you "skipped straight to the recipe," please scroll back to the top of this page for ingredient information, ingredient substitutions, tips and more. If you print this recipe, you'll want to check the recipe online for even more tips and extra information about ingredient substitutions, best results and more. See https://www.kitchenparade.com/2009/02/one-pot-chicken-with-beans-vegetables.php .

NUTRITION INFORMATION Per Serving (Freestyle assumes chicken breast): 227 Calories; 5g Tot Fat; 1g Sat Fat; 95mg Cholesterol; 656mg Sodium; 15g Carb; 5g Fiber; 4g Sugar; 327g Protein. WEIGHT WATCHERS POINTS Old Points 4 & PointsPlus 5 & SmartPoints 5 & Freestyle 1 & myWW green 4 & blue 1 & purple 1 & future WW points

Adapted from a seasonal cookbook from Taste of Home, such a find, this recipe!

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Seasonal Cooking: Mid Winter Across the Years

Homemade Lentil Soup Smashed Potatoes & Broccoli Casserole Trio of Vegetables with Sour Cream On-the-Run Breakfast Bars Black Walnut Bread One-Pot Chicken with Beans & Vegetables Julia Child's Soubise (Onion & Rice Casserole) (<< personal favorite) Chimichurri Gumbo Hamburger Casserole Raspberry & Red Wine Granita Chocolate Shortbread Cookies How to Cook White Rice Orange & Avocado Salad Manna Café Oatcakes (Oatmeal Pancakes)

This Week, Elsewhere

~ Warm Butternut Squash & Chickpea Salad with Tahini Dressing ~
~ more Recent Recipes ~
A Veggie Venture

If you like Kitchen Parade's recipes, you'll love A Veggie Venture, my food blog about vegetables with more from-scratch recipes using whole, healthful ingredients, home to the famous Alphabet of Vegetables and vegetables in every course, seasonal to staples, savory to sweet, salads to sides, soups to supper, simple to special.

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Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner:
More Weeknight Inspiration

more
~ rotisserie chicken recipes ~
~ Quick Suppers with chicken ~
~ chicken recipes ~

• THE RECIPE Easy Margarita Chicken A Quick Supper from a surprising source.
• ANOTHER TAKE Italian Lemon Chicken Italian-style baked chicken, lemon-y and garlick-y. (PIN This)

• THE RECIPE Rainbow Chicken Chicken (no browning required) and vegetables baked in the oven. (PIN This)
• ANOTHER TAKE Baked Chicken with Herb-Roasted Potatoes A simple, satisfying supper.

• THE RECIPE Honey Mustard Chicken Just five ingredients, fast and simple.
• ANOTHER TAKE Chicken Stew with Chickpeas & Kale A hearty, one-pot supper with warm spices and fresh vegetables. (PIN This)

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Shop Your Pantry First

(helping home cooks save money on groceries)

~ chicken recipes ~
~ recipes using canned and dried beans ~
~ turnip recipes ~
~ carrot recipes ~
~ celery recipes ~
~ Italian dressing recipes ~

~ All Recipes, By Ingredient ~
~ How to Save Money on Groceries ~

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Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences. Quick Suppers are Kitchen Parade favorites and feature recipes easy on the budget, the clock, the waistline and the dishwasher. Do you have a favorite recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail, you'll find my current address in the FAQs. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. Never miss a recipe! If you like this recipe, sign up for a free e-mail subscription. If you like Kitchen Parade, for more scratch cooking recipes using whole, healthful ingredients, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. If you make this recipe, I'd love to know your results! Just leave a comment below.

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Alanna Kellogg

A Veggie Venture is home of "veggie evangelist" Alanna Kellogg and the famous asparagus-to-zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables.

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