Rooting for Rutabaga

Rutabaga? What's that?


This is a rutabaga!

Thanks to our Greenling delivery, we had a couple rutabaga to enjoy. Rutabaga is a variety of turnip - a nice and tasty root vegetable.

I adapted a recipe from one of my veggie-focused cookbooks to create a tasty fix-it-and-forget-it crockpot meal. The following is my revised recipe.

Roasted Chicken and Rutabaga

• 1 fryer, skinned and cut into pieces
• 2 rutabaga, peeled and chopped into 1" pieces
• 2 turnips, peeled and chopped into 1" pieces (I included turnips because I had them. If you don't have them, include another rutabaga)
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Toss rutabaga and turnips in 1 T. olive oil, place in the bottom of the crockpot. Meanwhile, heat 1 T. olive oil in a large skillet and brown the chicken.

Note: You should always brown meat before cooking in the crockpot. It crisps the skin and gives a nice brown color that you'd expect to see from oven roasting.

Place the chicken in the crockpot, adjusting so it is one even layer over the vegetables. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add 1/2 c. water. Cook at low heat for 5-6 hours.

Remove the chicken and rutabaga from the crockpot. The chicken will be so tender that it falls off the bone. (So be careful removing it from the crockpot!) Serve with green beans and a simple brown gravy.

Forget to take a photo at lunch, so take a photo of the ready-to-take-to-work-leftovers instead.