Remember, I told you we’d be fixing that chicken dish – the one that my hubby made for me on about our 3rd or 4th date, way back 32 years ago? Here it is . . . you make it all in one pan (except for a carb if you choose to make one). It’s incredibly easy.
If you didn’t read my post a few days ago about my hubby Dave’s favorites, you won’t have the back story on this dish. Go read that if you care to. Here’s a bit more of the background. In 1981, Dave and his son lived about a block or two from our local fairgrounds, and often on Saturdays they’d go over to the weekly swap meet there (that still goes on at that location). Dave remembers vividly one Saturday as they walked up and down the rows, that he could smell something wonderful. Finally they came to a stand where a couple of Aussie guys were making chicken. It was only about 9:30 in the morning, and both Dave and his son gobbled down a sample of this dish, and Dave promptly bought a set of seasonings from this company, Benson’s Gourmet Seasonings.
The company is still in business, and this recipe – the same one they were fixing at the swap meet in 1981, is still the one they demonstrate, and is their #1 selling mixture. It uses their Supreme Garlic and Herb Salt Free Seasoning 2 oz Bottle
Dave made this dish for me, back in 1981 right after I met him, and he made it at least one other time, and the bottles of seasoning mixes have sat dormant on my pantry shelf ever since. Not in the regular place, but Dave didn’t want to throw them away – when we moved to this house 10 years ago I was going to toss them out. You know, herb and spice mixtures lose all their potency after a few weeks or at most a month. But Dave said, no, don’t throw them out. So they sat in an obscure and out of the way space. I generally don’t use those pre-packed seasoning mixes just because I know they don’t retain flavor well. I like to make my own combos at the moment when I need them. The only one I’ve been known to make in quantity is the North African Grilled Corn on the Cob spice mix. I make up a batch at the beginning of corn season and try to use it up by the time corn season has passed.
Having laughed over the chicken dinner story the other day, I dug out the bottle (that is 32 years old), went online, not expecting to find anything, and found the company’s website and their recipe easily enough. And decided that Dave needed to renew his acquaintance with this dish.
Here he is at our kitchen island. I cut up a whole chicken for him (next time we will make it with just chicken thighs, I think – much easier). I set him there at the cutting board with all of the vegetables he needed to chop. A lot. First you must have half a chopped onion and half a bell pepper. 
This dish takes 60 minutes to make, hence you want to start with medium-low heat. The herb mixture is added in at 3 junctures in the process.
The pictures here show the progression of the dish. First you put the raw chicken pieces in there (no seasonings, no oil, nothing) in a big honkin’ pan (we used a 12-inch nonstick pan with 4” high sides) skin side down with the heat at medium-low. The first set of veggies are added on top and down in any crevices you can find.
In the 2nd picture, after 20 minutes, you turn the chicken over. See, nicely browned chicken pieces.
Then after another 20 minutes of browning you add all the vegetables (more onion, peppers, zucchini, carrots, celery and mushrooms). The veggies kind of sit there on top and you wonder if they’ll ever cook through.
Ten minutes later you stir it all up (you do that several times so the veggies will get done). You never add a lid. But you do add 1/2 cup of white wine (we used vermouth) during the last 10 minutes and continue cooking until the chicken is done and the veggies are cooked.
Actually, we removed the chicken pieces to a hot plate and very briefly cooked the veggies for about 2 minutes – there were a few pieces of carrot and zucchini that weren’t quite done.
Meanwhile, make some rice. We made pasta (Dave’s choice), but I really think it would be easier to eat and more tasty with rice. Your choice, of course. I made linguine and thought it was too difficult to handle.
There is NO SALT in this dish. There is NO FAT added to this dish. And it’s delicious. Because the spice mixture was SO old, I measured out double the amount of it (so 2 T. rather than just 1). I think I need to order a new bottle, although the seasoning did have some smell and taste.
What’s GOOD: it’s a make-in-one-pot kind of dinner (except for a carb if you choose to make one). There’s lots of good flavor in it. It’s easy, really, but you do need to do a bunch of veggie chopping and prepping. Makes a big batch – I think it might feed more than 4 if you have a larger chicken. We had a 4-pound one and will likely get 3 meals out of it. It’s a pretty dish – lots of color. We don’t like green bell pepper, but it would have added even more color to the pan. The wine makes a kind of juicy sauce (unthickened, of course) – scoop some of it out with each serving onto the carb. Love that this has not one speck of added salt or added oil. You won’t miss it – really.
What’s NOT: just the time you need to spend tending to this – not hard – but you don’t want to go off and leave this as it requires a lot of chopping at first, then mixing around during the last 20 minutes. The chicken breasts were a little overdone, we thought, so I’d probably add them later or remove them early.
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Chicken Supreme
Recipe By: Benson’s Gourmet seasonings website
Serving Size: 4
2 1/2 pounds whole chicken — cut-up (2 1/2 to 3 lbs)
1 tablespoon Benson’s Supreme Salt-Free Seasoning
2 medium onions — 1 yellow, 1 red, chopped
1 medium green bell pepper — seeded and sliced [we omitted]
1 medium red bell pepper — seeded and sliced
1 medium yellow bell pepper — seeded and sliced
2 medium zucchini — trimmed and sliced
1 stalk celery — sliced
1 medium carrot — peeled and thinly sliced
8 ounces mushrooms — sliced (optional)
1/2 cup dry white wine — chicken broth or water [we used vermouth]
Serve with hot rice on the side (also can use pasta or potatoes)
1. Preheat a 12-inch non-stick skillet over medium-low heat. Place chicken skin side down. Use no oil.
2. Put about 1/2 of a chopped onion & 1/2 of a bell pepper sliced, in spaces. Sprinkle all with 1 tsp. seasoning. and brown over medium-low heat for about 20 minutes.
3. Turn chicken pieces over and sprinkle with 1 tsp. seasoning. Brown another 20 minutes.
4. Add all remaining vegetables. Sprinkle with remaining 1 tsp. seasoning. Stir occasionally so vegetables cook evenly. Cook about 20 minutes longer. Do not cover. Add wine (liquid) the last 10 minutes. Serve with or over rice, noodles or pasta, or just as it is. (If by chance the vegetables aren’t quite done, remove the chicken to a hot serving plate, cover with foil and turn up the heat under the vegetables and cook until they’re all cooked through.) The nutrition count on this assumes you eat all the skin.
Per Serving (this assumes you eat all the skin): 519 Calories; 30g Fat (53.4% calories from fat); 40g Protein; 18g Carbohydrate; 5g Dietary Fiber; 176mg Cholesterol; 162mg Sodium.
Annice
said on November 7th, 2013:
The recipe sounds delicious! Since I don’t live in the U.S., I can’t get the Benson’s seasoning. What can I use in its place?
Hi Annice: here’s what it says on the bottle: garlic, paprika, onion, sage, marjoram, oregano, white pepper, basil, parsley, green bell pepper, rosemary, tarragon, thyme, allspice, savory, lemon, celery, bay leaf, chives. Here in the U.S. canned/bottled goods are supposed to be listed on labels by weight/volume. In other words, it means there’s more garlic than paprika, more onion than sage, etc. You can use your own judgment, however – you just won’t need very much of any of those – I’d start with 1/4 teaspoon of the first, tapering the amounts down to a pinch of the last ones. I’d probably just add a little bit of fresh green pepper, and a bit of diced celery to the chicken pan rather than try to find dried bell pepper and dried celery. If you make a small batch of this, use it up within a month as herbs and spices that are mixed like that – supposedly – don’t keep long. But hey, this bottle has been hanging around for 30 years and it still had flavor! Thanks for reading my blog! . . . carolyn t