Chicken and Olives Recipe Braised in Lodge Cast Iron Dutch Oven

Lodge provided the Enameled Cast Iron Dutch Oven for this post. All opinions are my own. 

Do you like the idea of about fifteen minute prep and a dinner that tastes like you spent hours. This chicken and olives recipe addresses many things busy cooks are looking for.

• Easy. It takes five minutes to cut up carrots, onion and lemon, ten minutes to brown the chicken.
• Healthy: This is paleo, gluten free, grain free, dairy free, low carb.
• Flavorful: This is a dish I’d serve in a restaurant to get my customers to return.
• Beautiful: Yes.
• Comfort Food: Does all comfort food have to be deep fried and full of cheese? No.
• Frugal. You can cut up a whole chicken and stretch this into two dinners or use affordable chicken thighs. Don’t purchase a cut up chicken. Purchase a whole chicken which is much cheaper and ask the butcher in the store to cut it up for you. But, buy healthy chicken, organic if you can.

The Chicken and Olives recipe is from the cookbook, Mediterranean Paleo Cooking, which I recently reviewed here. If you like this, you’ll want to read the review.

I was immediately drawn to the recipe on the cover because I love anything with olive and lemon.

The Process for Chicken and Olives Recipe

The Lodge Cast Iron Dutch Oven 7 Quart is a Great Size for Braising Chicken

I made the entire dish in the same braising dutch oven provided by Lodge. I met the Lodge people at food event in Nashville and asked if I could work with them. I’m a huge fan of cast iron and this makes my 13th cast iron addition. I use them all. I use at least one every single day. I’ve visited the Lodge Factory store in south Pittsburgh, Tennessee. If you get a chance go shopping there.

This is now my favorite dutch oven and I have three. It was roomy enough to brown several thighs at once, and then move over and add the vegetables. It holds heat well, and most of this dish was made on a very low simmer. You could put the  Lodge dutch oven in the oven at a low temperature of 300 degrees for a dish like this. You can also make this dish in a crock pot, but you would still have to brown the chicken and sauté the vegetables first.

The Oval Lodge Cast Iron Dutch Oven comes in this beautiful white color.

• Porcelain enamel interior and exterior
• Self-basting cover with handle traps in heat, moisture and nutrients
• 7-Quart capacity
• Stainless steel knob
• Can be placed in oven, refrigerator, freezer

Chicken and Olives uses a Whole Lemon with Saffron and Cumin, Resulting in a very aromatic dish.

The addition of cumin and saffron adds sultry flavor. The recipe calls for boiling the olives for a while before adding them, but I skipped that, because I wanted the brine in the dish. The broth that remains is so good. You could use bread to sop it up or some rice. If you want to eat paleo, try this mashed cauliflower, which is what I did.

Mashed Cauliflower recipe here

This chicken dish has amazing flavor and it’s so easy to make that I’m making it all over again this week!

You Might Love these One Pot Chicken Recipes from Spinach Tiger

One Pot Chicken, Sausage, Kale and White Beans

Chicken  with Peppers and Onions

Chicken Thighs with Cauliflower

A Cookbook, A Dutch Oven, a Chicken and Olives Recipe

 

Author:

Angela Roberts

Recipe type: Chicken with Olives and Lemon

Cuisine: Algerian

Serves: 4

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 70 mins

Total time: 1 hour 25 mins

Print

 

Chicken with Olives adapted from Mediterranean Paleo Cooking by Caitlyn Weeks, Nabil Bourmar and Diane SanFilippo

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon butter or ghee (or olive oil for dairy free)
• 1 cut up chicken (I used eight thighs)
• fine sea salt
• ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 pinch saffron
• 1 medium onion
• 3 carrots
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 4 cups chicken broth
• ¼ cup chopped cilantro
• 1 lemon
• 2 cups pitted green olives (less if you prefer)
• ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro

Instructions

1. In Dutch oven, melt fat over medium heat.
2. Dry chicken. Season with salt and pepper and add to the pan.
3. Cook for ten minutes. I started with skin side down for about 6 minutes or until browned. Turn over.
4. Add saffron and cumin, continue to sauté for 2 minutes.
5. Add onion and garlic and sauté for another two minutes.
6. Chicken should be brown; onions translucent.
7. Add broth to pot and cover. Bring to boil and reduce heat.
8. Remove lid and simmer for 30 minutes.
9. In the cookbook directions, they ask to boil the olives separately, but I like the flavor of the olives and Add olives and carrots, and half of lemon, sliced. and cook another 20 minutes or until carrots are cooked through.
10. Squeeze the other half of lemon into the broth.
11. Serve with the sauce and garnish with cilantro.

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