There is nothing I love better than a one-pot meal. It's great to get the whole family involved in a truly from-scratch meal, but that often means dirtying up every dish in the house. By the time the kitchen needs cleaning, my family is too tired to help and I get stuck with all the dishes. The recipe below is a great way to put a home cooked meal on the table without any of the fuss.
Onions and peppers are a classic combination for sausage dishes, but I like mixing it up a bit. I love using fennel in this dish instead, and this is the perfect dish to try it out if you've never worked with it before. Fennel has the same great texture as onions, but it bursts with fresh anise flavors. I always use apple chicken sausage in this dish because it's so much healthier than pork sausage, and the flavor of apples goes so well with fennel.
Chicken Sausage Fennel
4
10 minutes
45 minutes
50 minutes
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil, divided
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
4 Johnsonville apple chicken sausage links
2 small fennel bulbs, thinly slicedfronds reserved for garnish
3 1/2 cups chicken broth
2 cups rice
Salt and pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
In a small bowl, combine the apple cider vinegar, olive oil, and dijon mustard. Whisk until well combined. Set aside.
In a large oven-proof skillet, add oil and cook the sausages until they are browned on both sides, about 5 minutes.
Remove the sausages to a large bowl. Toss them with the sliced fennel and vinegar dressing. Set aside.
In the skillet, add the chicken broth and rice. Bring the mixture to a simmer.
Top the rice with the dressed sausage, fennel, and vinegar mixture. Cover the pan with the lid or aluminum foil and place it in the oven.
Bake for 45 minutes, until the rice is cooked tender and the liquid has evaporated.
Place a serving of rice on each plate and top it with a sausage link and some of the cooked fennel.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.