This week’s Sunday Supper is all about family and traditions, especially foodie traditions that have been handed down through generations.

For my family, we don’t have any Christmas foodie traditions. My parents grew up in rural China, where Christmas wasn’t celebrated. What I totally appreciate is the fact that my parents, who came to Canada at the age of 30 without any money, no English language skills, low income jobs and three young daughters (soon to be four) still bought our family a Christmas tree within their first few years of immigrating. The lil sis ‘n I still put that tree up every single year. It just wouldn’t be Christmas without it. All the decorations are the ones that we had as children, many of them made by the two of us in elementary school. The plastic angel on top has seen better days. What little tinsel is left from the original package is all crinkly, some of it burnt by the old school lights. The whole thing looks tacky as hell but I love it. It makes me feel like a kid again every single year.

There’s no Christmas make-out music for you this week. Instead I’m sharing my favourite scene from It’s A Wonderful Life:

The ending from one of my most beloved Christmas movies, White Christmas:

And this hilariously awkward rendition by Justin Bieber of the Christmas hit, All I Want for Christmas Is You. There’s something really disturbing about watching Mariah writhe around in lingerie with a teenaged boy:

Even if you can’t stomach watching this whole video clip, skip to 3:23 where they’re in the sleigh together. It’s worth it – trust.

The dish I made for this week isn’t one that’s traditional in my life but it’s one that I’ve added to my kitchen rotation. I love chicken – if I had to choose only one meat to eat for the rest of my life, that would be it.

My Adaptation of Dorie’s Chicken in a Pot for original recipe, see here

This isn’t a strictly follow by the numbers recipes. It’s totally adaptable – you can throw in whatever you want!

5 cloves of garlic, peeled, slightly smashed
1 large onion, diced
bacon – I used 4 strips and diced it
4 carrots, cut into four pieces each
5 celery stalks, roughly cut
salt and pepper
4 sprigs fresh thyme
4 sprigs fresh rosemary
4 sprigs flat-leaf parsley
1 chicken, which I left whole but you can cut it up
mushrooms (however many you can fit in your pot)
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup white wine (or another 1/2 cup of chicken broth)

For the seal:
about 1 1/2 cups of flour
about 3/4 cup hot water

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F.

Generously salt and pepper the chicken.

Using a large dutch oven, set it on your stove at high heat and add about 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the chicken and brown it on all sides. Remove the chicken and set it aside.

In the same dutch oven or oven-proof pot, fry the bacon until it’s almost cooked. I didn’t bother straining out the fat but you can at this stage. Add the onions and garlic. Cook until the onions are tender. Add in the rest of the vegetables and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, until the vegetables are lightly browned. Place the chicken back into the pot on top of the vegetables. Add the herbs. Pour in the chicken broth and wine.

In case you’re wondering, that weird alien-like thing is the chicken neck. Yum yum!

At this point, you can either cover the pot with aluminum foil and the lid but I recommend taking the fun route by making a sticky paste out of flour and water to seal. To make the paste, stir the flour and water together, mixing until you have a soft, workable dough. My dough was super sticky – I probably should’ve added more flour to it so that it’d be more like a dough but c’est la vie. The original recipe calls for shaping the dough into a long sausage like log so that you can prettily and easily press it against the rim and then place the lid on top to form a seal.

Not-so-brilliant me simply slathered my flour paste against the side of the pot. It looks disgusting but did the trick.

Slide the pot into the oven and bake for 70 minutes. If your chicken is huge and you think it should cook longer, turn the heat down to 325 and leave it in for another 15-30 minutes.

Remove the pot from the oven and be uber careful removing the lid. Dorie recommends wiggling a screwdriver between the dough and the pot. I simply cracked mine open with my meat mallet.

Voila! The chicken was super moist and so flavourful from the vegetables and herbs. We ate it over several days with good, crusty bread for dipping into the broth. This was incredibly easy to make and tasted like pure comfort.

I wish all of you the merriest of Christmases and the happiest of holidays. Spend it with your loved ones, eat, drink, and appreciate every moment you have together.

Our host is the wonderful Beate of Galactopdx. Check out her tantalizing dish and every delicious morsel from the rest of the Sunday Supper family:

Breakfast

• Eggs Benedict by Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
• Holiday Cream Cheese Tea Ring by That Skinny Chick can Bake
• Orange Refrigerator Rolls by The Wimpy Vegetarian
• Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake by Small Wallet Big Appetite

Appetizers & Snacks

• Chicken Liver Pate by Tora’s Real Food
• Bindaetteok {Mung Bean Pancakes} by Kimchi Mom
• Crab and Asparagus Soup by The Urban Mrs.

Sides

• Potato Salad {Schwaebischer Kartoffelsalat} by Galactopdx
• Italian Orange Salad by Shockingly Delicious
• Sweet Potato Casserole by Magnolia Days
• Carrots au gratin by Juanitas Cocina

Main Dishes

• Char Siu Bao – Chinese Roast Pork Buns by The Girl In The Little Red Kitchen
• Savory Crepe Cake by Vintage Kitchen
• West Indian Curried Goat by The ROXX Box
• Pot Cheese and Potato Cheese Pierogies by Cupcakes and Kale Chips
• Seafood Gumbo and Grilled Oysters: A Louisiana Christmas Tradition by the Catholic Foodie
• Mom’s Paella by What Smells So Good?
• Portuguese inspired Chorizo Crown Pork Roast by Family Foodie
• Dorie’s Chicken in a Pot by Gotta Get Baked
• New Year’s Eve Buckwheat Noodles with Mochi by The Ninja Baker
• Mile High Lasagna by Cravings of a Lunatic
• Crab Cakes for Christmas Eve by Daddy Knows Less

Desserts

• Pizzelles {Italian Wafer Cookies} by Chocolate Moosey
• Fudge by Dinner Dishes and Desserts
• Crescent Cookies by Cookistry
• Christmas Stollen by Hezzi D’s Books and Cooks
• Pfeffernussen by The Foodie Army Wife
• Creme De Menthe Cake by I Run for Wine
• Panettone Bread Pudding by the Country Girl in the Village
• Spiced Gingerbread Gooey Butter Cake | A twist on a St. Louis Favorite by Daily Dish Recipes
• Chocolate Gingerbread Cake with Eggnog Cream Cheese Frosting by Crispy Bits and Burnt Ends
• Jamaican Christmas Pudding by Lovely Pantry
• White Chocolate Cranberry Santa Cookies by Mooshu Jenne
• Christmas Tree Cookies by Damn Delicious
• Old Fashioned Lady Fingers {Creamhorns} by The Meltaways
• Rose Milk Almond Falooda {Indian Dessert Drink} by Sue’s Nutrition Buzz

Drinks

• Wine Pairings by ENOFYLZ Wine Blog
• Cinnamon Infused Hot Chocolate with Southern Comfort Whipped Cream by Mama Mommy Mom

The posts are more than recipes. They are also wonderful stories of holidays and traditions. Please take the time to visit and read each heartwarming one.

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