Frank Davis's Back-a-town Chicken

Total Time: 1 hr 20 mins Preparation Time: 20 mins Cook Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

• Servings: 4
• 4 tablespoons margarine
• 3 large onions, thick sliced
• 1 large frying chicken, cut in pieces, washed and skinned
• 1 tablespoon cajun seasoning (many clones on zaar)
• 2 teaspoons sweet basil
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt (or sea salt)
• 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 lb andouille sausage, sliced (can sub smoked sausage)
• 1 cup fresh mushrooms, halved
• 3 carrots, peeled and chunked
• 2 garlic cloves, finely minced
• 1/2 cup green onion, thick sliced
• 1/2 small bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 2 cups cream of chicken soup

Recipe

• 1 preheat oven 350 degrees.
• 2 in a heavy cast iron dutch oven, melt the margarine over high heat until it sizzles and fry the sliced onions (stirring constantly) for about 10 minutes until they carmelize to a dark brown.
• 3 while the onions are cooking, sprinkle each piece thoroughly with cajun seasoning, basil, salt, and black and cayenne pepper.
• 4 next, remove all but a thin layer of caramelized onions from the dutch oven and set aside. a little at a time, alternating as you go, start adding to the dutch oven the chicken and all of the remaining ingredients (including the browned onions—but not the soup). note: do not put any liquid in the pot! it will make it’s own liquid.
• 5 put the lid on the dutch oven and bake, covered, for about 1 1/2 hours or until the chicken starts to fall off the bone.
• 6 remove the chicken from the dutch oven, place it on a serving platter, and stir the cream of chicken soup into the “pot liquorâ€?.
• 7 simmer the gravy until it is hot and bubbly and ladle it over the chicken.
• 8 serve with either baked potatoes, mashed potatoes or rice.