The Perfect Roast Chicken

I really can't believe I haven't written about the perfect roast chicken yet - it's the Mister and I's go-to Sunday Night Dinner. In fact, I think it was the first SND that I made for us. I really can't think of anything better than a roast chicken - amazing, tender, and juicy. It's a little fussy, but when it comes out right OH MAN is it tasty. I'd love to hear your versions of this classic dish, but for now here's what I think you should do. My version is inspired by the great Ina Garten, and I will NOT tell you what Robb calls her because it's super mean and I love her. So there.

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Start with a 4 - 5 pound whole chicken - try to go for organic/free range if you can. It makes quite the difference in flavor, and it's way better for you. Both Trader Joe's and Whole Foods have great options. Remove the giblet package (you can freeze this and use later if you make your own chicken stock) and then give that chicken a rinse inside and out. Be sure to pat dry thoroughly with paper towels and set aside.

Slice up two large onions - white, yellow, or red are all fine - or a mix would be nice. Scatter those in the bottom of your roasting pan with 5 carrots that you've peeled and chopped into pretty diagonally sliced chunks. Don't make them too small or they'll cook too quickly, but you want them to be bite sized. Another don't - don't salt and pepper your veggies at this point, when you S/P the chicken, plenty of that seasoning will fall off into your onions and carrots.

Now back to your chicken - salt and pepper the cavity, then add one half of a large orange, a big ol' handful of fresh thyme, a halved lemon, a halved clementine (you can skip this citrus if you don't have, just add another halved lemon if you'd like), a bulb of garlic halved crosswise, and finish with the other half of your orange, if you can fit. You want the skin of the orange to be showing through the top of the cavity - it will hold everything in if you do this. Tie the legs of the chicken together firmly with some butcher's twine (any butcher will give you a length of this if you bat your eyes, but it's also readily available at kitchen supply stores). Soften two tablespoons of butter - don't melt it completely, just soften it. Time to give that chicken a butter massage! Set the chicken in the rack of the roasting pan breast side up over your veggies and rub that butter all over the skin. Liberally salt and pepper (AFTER you've buttered, it sticks that way - also some of the seasoning will fall down on your veggies) and you'll get a delicious salty crust when you roast.

Pour 1/2 cup of white wine and 1/2 cup of chicken stock over the veggies, and then slide the roasting pan into the oven - make sure the rack is in the middle of the oven. Roast the chicken and the vegetables for ninety minutes. Make sure that there is always some liquid covering the onions and carrots - they will burn otherwise. Add more wine or chicken stock accordingly. When there is about thirty minutes left, take the chicken out of the oven and quickly turn it over so that the underside can brown as well. Turn the chicken back breast side up for the last ten or so minutes of cooking. You want your guy to be 160 degrees - I really recommend a digital thermometer that has an oven safe cord, they're amazing. Mine lets off a little alarm when the desired temperature has been reached. Once your chicken reaches 160 degrees, take it out the oven and transfer it to a wooden cutting board (preferably one with a groove running around the border of the board to catch the delicious juices). Tent that guy with some aluminum foil and let it rest at least twenty minutes before you carve - you'll scald your fingers if you don't wait.

Remove the onions and carrots from the roasting pan with a slotted spoon and cover with foil to keep warm for later when you're ready to eat. Strain the pan drippings into a saucepan and spoon off any fat that has risen to the top (or you can use a handy dandy fat separator - it's the greatest invention ever and available at Crate and Barrel). Add any juice that has collected around the chicken on the cutting board and a splash or two more of the white wine you used before as well as bit more chicken stock. Just eyeball it - you want to have a cup and a half or so of liquid in the sauce pan. As you're simmering that, whisk three tablespoons of cornstarch with a quarter cup of chicken stock in a separate bowl, then whisk that into your saucepan. The gravy should start to thicken right away. Keep whisking, and if it's too thick, add some more chicken stock - too thin, mix a little more cornstarch with some chicken stock and add to the gravy. Taste for seasoning and you should have some spectacular gravy!

You can serve this amazing chicken with the onion, carrots, kick-ass gravy, and some mashed taters or crusty bread. When I made this the other night, I served it with the artichoke gratin that I've featured in an earlier post. Check it out, it makes a really nice accompaniment.

And there you have it! Fairly simple - once you've gotten the chicken in the oven you've got plenty of time to relax with a glass of wine and some port salut.

XO,

D

Dinner from Sunday Night Past....

Hi friends! Alas, I cannot make Sunday Night Dinner tonight, gots to go sling some ale. But do not fret! You will be visited by the ghost of a Sunday Night Dinner past....but you won't be scared. You will become the mayor of Delicious Town.

Menu:

Brisket burgers with umami mushrooms, caramelized onions, avocado, and Cabot white cheddah

Artichoke-Zucchini Gratin

Mache and Heirloom tomato Salad with a mustard vinaigrette

I know, right? It was a tasty one. The brisket for the burgers is clutch, I urge you all to try it. Go to Whole Foods or Bristol Farms or Byerly's (what up, MN peeps!) and head on over to the meat counter. Ask for a pound of brisket and have them grind it for you. I have a grinder attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer, and the Whole Foods butcher was cranky, so I just brought the brisket home and ground it myself (read: Adam ground it; that's a boy's job).

To make the brisket patties, I put the ground brisket in a mixing bowl with a few squeezes of ketchup, a tablespoon of Dijon mustard, a few shakes of Worcestershire sauce, some salt/pepper, and one egg to bind them all. Use your hands here, guys - the are your best tools. Get everything nice and incorporated, but don't overwork the meat. Heh. Divide the meat into four and form into patties and refrigerate until you're ready to grill.

The Artichoke/Zucchini Gratin is pretty tasty - and a healthier alternative to delicious fries. It is a Giada De Laurentiis recipe, but I changed it just slightly as so to feed four people. For the artichokes, don't be scrrrd: you do not need to use fresh artichokes. Most grocery stores have them in the freezer section. Just let them thaw before you use them so that they don't steam when you saute them. So, I pre heated the oven to 450 degrees. As it heated, I threw the entire bag of thawed frozen artichoke hearts (it was almost a pound) in a skillet with a three-count of olive oil, three zucchinis that i roughly chopped, three cloves of chopped garlic, a handful of chopped parsley, and a pinch of red pepper flake. I got the veggies to brown a bit, and then added to the pan 1/2 cup of chicken broth and 1/4 cup of dry Marsala wine. I let that simmer for another couple of minutes, then transferred the mixture to my gratin pan (any shallow roasting pan will do here). Meanwhile, I melted some....butter! 2 tablespoons and then mixed it with 1/3 cup bread crumbs and 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese and poured in on the vegetables for a yummy, crusty topping. Into the oven until it turned golden brown, it took about 15 minutes. Dude. So good.

For the salad, I got some Mache, from Whole Foods - which I love. I heart it. I really like soft lettuces like mache and butter lettuce. Give them a go. I made a quick vinaigrette with mustard, red wine vinegar, a splash of white wine, salt/pepper and olive oil. I like to whisk the vinaigrette in the bottom of the salad bowl, then pile the greens on top. That way you can toss it right before serving, and the lettuce won't wilt. I also added chopped heirloom tomatoes, which were so sweet and delicious. Big step for me here, as I am usually only a fan of tomatoes in their sauce form. I'm such a grown up.

Okay - burger toppings. If you read last week's dinner, I do so love caramelized onions. I made these in the same way: two to three count of olive oil in the pan with a sliced onion with some salt/pepper. Get some good color on those boys and deglaze the pan with some white wine. Take the onions out and set aside, you're going to use this same pan to cook the mushrooms.

Time for umami mushrooms! I wear very fancy pants, by the way. Just kidding. Adam and his brother wear fancy pants - these mushrooms were their idear. So I took 10 or so crimini mushrooms and cleaned them (do NOT wash these, just brush the tops with a damp cloth; or don't if you like super rubbery mushrooms) and quartered them. I let them marinate during the burger and artichoke prep in some soy sauce, some Worcestershire sauce (five or so good shakes of the bottle of each), a small palmful of dried thyme, and some salt/pepper. After the onions are caramelized and out of the pan, pour the mushrooms and the marinade in, and cook those delicious fellas until they are browned but not too dry.

Sliced avocado and some Cabot white cheddar rounded out these outstanding, melt in your mouth burgers. Since grilling is also a boy's job, I sent Adam down to our apartment community's grill. He had gone down about ten minutes earlier to clean and heat the grill. When he went down there with the the meat and the ciabatta buns, a lovely neighbor of ours had totally bogarted the grill that Adam had prepped. Had it ENTIRELY covered . Uh, hello? Did you think that this grill was prepped just for you? Ah, apartment living. My patient fella shot the duder some laser beam looks and just prepped another grill. Sigh.

Anyhoosers, the burgers were cooked medium for me and medium well for those who can't handle a little pink in their burgers. Not naming names. The brisket was like butter, so juicy and melty and you can really tell the difference when it is freshly ground. With all of the toppings and side dishes, this was a really special meal. So tasty and refreshing on a beautiful, warm Sunday night. Try it tonight! Let me know how it goes!

-D