Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self. - Cyril Connolly
Monday, January 08, 2007
Best Roast Chicken - EVER
In advance of the work week, I decided to roast a chicken last night so that I would have plenty of meat to make some Thai Soup, salad, and one or two other meals from the leftovers. Yeah, I could have bought a roast chicken, but what fun is that?
One of my New Year's kicks has been to actually crack open all the wonderful cookbooks I have and make better use of them. One of them is Patricia Well's French cookbook that I made a few classic recipes from when I got it as a gift from a good friend a while back, but decided to revisit. Her version of classic, roast lemon chicken is to DIE for. It's the cooking method that makes it great. You need a sturdy, adjustable, V-shaped cooking rack to do this properly.
Parisian Lemon Chicken
1 good, preferably organic, free range chicken - about 5 pounds 2 lemons, well scrubbed and cut into quarters vertically 1 bunch of fresh poultry herbs (sage, rosemary, thyme, marjoram) 3-4 Tablespoons softened unsalted butter or herb butter (I used garlic herb butter from Whole Foods)
Preheat the oven to 425' Rinse the chicken thoroughly, pat dry, and season the cavity with kosher salt and pepper. Place the giblets in the cavity Tie the poultry herbs into a bouquet garni and place in the cavity. Place the lemon quarters in the bird as well (it's a tight fit!) Generously rub the entire bird with the herb butter and truss.
Lay the bird on its SIDE in the roasting rack and roast for 20 minutes Turn the bird on its other side and roast for 20 minutes more Turn the bird breast side up and roast for 20 minutes
Turn the heat down to 375, and roast the bird on its back back side UP with its head pointing down and the butt in the air so all the juices run under the breast for another 15 minutes.
Take the bird out of the oven and place on an oven proof platter with the rear end resting against the edge of a plate to keep it at an angle, cover with foil and let it rest in the oven with the heat off and the door ajar for at LEAST 10 minutes and up to 30.
Remove everything from the bird and squeeze every last drop of juice from the lemons and save. Discard everything else.
Pour off the grease from the pan drippings and deglaze the pan on the stove with 1/4 cup of COLD water. Hot water will turn it cloudy. Pour in the juices from the serving platter and add the lemon juice. Stir at low heat (simmer) until it thickens a bit - about 5 minutes. It makes kind of a truc or au juis as opposed to a true gravy. If you wanted to make a gravy, I suppose you could add a little flour, but I liked it the way it was.
Carve the bird into pieces and drizzle with the lemon juice sauce. Juiciest chicken ever.
I cut up some fingerling potatoes and tossed them into the roasting pan about halfway through the process so they got all crispy and brown, and served this with some braised red cabbage with goat cheese, hazlenuts and balsamic vinegar.
Tonight? Leftovers!
UPDATE: The next time I make this, instead of putting the giblets in the cavity with the lemons and herbs, I think I'll cut a head of garlic in half and toss it in there instead. Then, when the chicken is finished, you can squeeze out all the roasted garlic paste goodness into the lemon juice and thicken the sauce with it.
That sounds divine! And the cooking method would fit right in with my ADHD-is-the-chicken-done-yet schedule.