I am so good. Perfection the second time out. Skin is crispy, white meat juicy, good lemony garlicky flavor throughout. Plus, I oh so brilliantly incorporated a couple side dishes into the cooking process with a minimum of effort, dirtied dishes, and ingredients. I made a rack out of halved red potatoes, thereby raising the bird (ha) out of the skillet so the hot air was able to circulate and cook it faster. The retained heat of the cast iron skillet I used kind of pan fried the potatoes, giving the cut side an amazing browned crust. They were so good. And instead of making a gravy or pan sauce, I dumped 2 cups of cooked lentils into the chicken drippings, added some lemon zest and a little red wine vinegar. Totally easier than messing with a sauce without sacrificing the pan drippings. Also, I used the rest of the parsley pesto I blogged about a couple days ago to stuff and rub over the chicken, giving it a nice speckly skin. Next time I'm going to try broiling both sides to finish it off.
1 4 1/2 lb chicken
zest of 1 lemon
that lemon
5 garlic cloves
parsley
red wine vinegar
Olive oil
S&P
4 red potatoes
2 cups lentils (I used 1 cup red and 1 cup french)
Salt chicken inside and out, let it sit and come to room temperature. Rub skin with olive oil, stuff whole garlic cloves, 1/2 the lemon, and a handful of parsley in the cavity. Cut red potatoes in half and place cut side down in pan in order to make a kind of platform/rack and place chicken breast side up on top. Roast at 400 for 15 minutes per pound, or until internal temp reaches 170 and juices run clear. When there's 30 minutes left in the cooking time, add lentils to 4 cups of water, bring to a boil, then turn down and simmer until tender, about 30 minutes. Remove chicken and potatoes to another dish and stir lentils into pan drippings. Add the lemon zest and red wine vinegar to taste, confetti the whole lot with chopped parsley and you're set!
Variables
Iron skillet, supermarket chicken, 400 for 15 min per pound, raised, breast side up, garlic.
Results
Crispy browned skin, moist meat, garlicky lemony juices.
1 comment:
That chicken looks fantastic - it's hard for me to make chicken that doesn't like bleh. Also, with red potatoes it's really good to chop up a red onion and add Old Bay liberally and then put it in the oven for a while.
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