Baked Chicken with Potatoes, Carrots and Onions, YUM! :-)

Over the last few months, I've had quite a few conversations with people who say that they don't know how to cook or think that it's too complicated. The things I cook are usually simple and generally don't have a ton of ingredients. Now I'll say that I don't claim to be any super chef but I at least try and usually come up with something that works for the family and most of what I know are traditional, Southern foods and Southern style cooking. For those of you that are fabulous cooks already, this is going to be elementary for you, so feel free to point out any errors or anything that may be beneficial for others or myself!

So here are a few tips about the way I cook:
- I enjoy cooking, but usually feel like I don't have time, so I cook BIG on Mondays and Wednesdays so we can have leftovers on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
- if I'm going to cook something in the oven, it's likely going to be in a 9x13 baking pan
- if I can put multiple foods in one pan, I will. (I don't like to wash dishes)
- most of the time, when I plan on baking foods in the oven, I line my pans with aluminum foil and spray with PAM (again, because I don't like to wash dishes and because the PAM keeps food from sticking.)

Here's what you need:
1 package of chicken. You can use any type of chicken, but I prefer to cook this with pieces of chicken that have the bones in them and skin on them. I think it adds more flavor. (If you are opting for a heart-healthy version, just use boneless, skinless chicken breasts.) I used 1 package of chicken thighs. Make sure the meat is thawed before you begin cooking it!
6-8 red potatoes
2-3 lbs carrots
3 sweet yellow onions
Olive Oil
3 Tbsp Butter
Salt

Stop now and preheat your oven to 400 degrees!

I then started by peeling the carrots. We LOVE carrots and they are much healthier than potatoes, so I intentionally try to have more carrots than potatoes! I actually used this entire bag and half of another so, more like 3 lbs of carrots. (By the way, I can't live without this vegetable peeler. I think it's Farberware and I picked it up at Wal-Mart for about $5. It will peel through an entire bag of carrots in 5 minutes or less, but be careful, it will peel through your finger if you get it in the way!) Now chop the ends of off your carrots and discard. Begin chopping up your carrots. Just remember that the thicker the pieces, the longer it takes to cook, so it's totally worth while to chop into smaller pieces. I try to chop in about 1/3" - 1/2" slices.

Now it's time to scrub your potatoes. I've used different kinds of potatoes, but I like the little red potatoes. If you feel like going for a more healthy option, you can always use sweet potatoes too. Now chop the ends off of your potatoes and slice and dice. It doesn't have to be pretty! Just try to remember that the pieces should be approximately the same size so that it takes the same amount of time for them to cook through. Now don't waste your time getting all specific here. Like you see in the picture below, I've just diced most of them, but the three slices in the lower left corner have not been diced. These would take much longer to cook, so just be thoughtful to dice everything to approximately the same size! (Oh yeah, if you don't have a chef's knife, nothing will make you feel quite like you're so awesome in the kitchen like one of these. Get a knife that has a blade that is larger than the handle. Sharpen it often and knock it out. It will save you SO much time in the kitchen. It's totally worth the investment! I seriously think I use mine every time I cook.)

Alrighty now it's time to work on those onions. Now I've heard on Food Network and read in magazines that if you put your onions in the freezer before you chop them that it will help keep you from crying. I always forget, so I try to be quick. Now peel the outer layer off of your onions and chop off the tops and bottoms and discard. I like to slice mine in wedge shapes and keep them a little chunky.

OK it's time to assemble the goods. Take your 9x13 pan (or two if you are going to cook BIG and eat leftovers) and line them with aluminum foil. I highly recommend Reynolds wrap for this. I am usually a big advocate of generic brand items, but for this, it's worth using the name brand. It is less likely to rip and keeps you from having a big mess cooked into the bottom of your pan. Once you've lined the pan with aluminum foil you can spray with PAM or your stores generic brand of cooking spray.  Now since I'm cooking big here, you'll see below that I assembled my food in 2 pans. I added chicken to each pan because I feel like the flavor from the chicken cooks into the potatoes and carrots. Then place the potatoes and carrots between or around the chicken.

Top the chicken and vegetables with the wedges of onion. Drizzle with olive oil. I maybe use about 2 Tbsp over the whole pan. Add a small pat of butter to the tops of each piece of chicken. (I consider a "small pat" to be approximately 1/3 of a Tbsp.)

Now you can sprinkle the entire pan with a little salt. If you're trying to avoid salt, consider using Mrs. Dash Table Blend or I think there is a reduced sodium Mrs. Dash.

Very important: Cover your pan with aluminum foil, wrap tightly around the edges so it keeps the moisture in and place on a middle rack in the oven.

Set the timer for 1 hour. At that time, pull your pans out, stir the vegetables around. All of the juices from the chicken will cook out into the bottom of your pan, so you want to flip your veggies so that the ones that were not in the juices on the top of the pan, get switched to the bottom, just a good stir and flip the veggies, recover with aluminum foil, a tight seal again and place back in the oven for another hour.

At the end of the cook time, you should have something like this:

Now to the plate:

YUM! And there ya go. A southern style baked chicken with potatoes and carrots. Easy!