Hoo boy! Made my second roasted chicken ever tonight, and JHC, was it GOOD!
Chicken with 40 Cloves of garlic (My Bastardized version)
1 (3-4-pound) chicken, rinsed and patted dry (Get an organic one, they're so much better)
3 tablespoons olive oil (or however many glugs; one to rub the chicken with, one to brown it)
1 teaspoon Kosher salt (or, you know, three or four pinches... I love Kosher salt!)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (or however many twists)
2 fresh parsley sprigs (I just snipped off some of the tops in a bunch- brusied them in the mortar & pestle)
1 fresh rosemary sprig (I left this out- Martel doesn't like it)
1 fresh thyme sprig (I peeled the little leaves off of about six sprigs)
1 bay leaf (I used two)
(1 1/2 tablespoon cracked fennel seeds)
(I pretty much doubled up on the herbs- I wanted a lot to stuff the cavity with)
(1 jucy lemon- 1/2 sliced very very thin, the other half juiced)
40 garlic cloves, UNPEELED (from 3 to 4 heads of garlic)
1/2 cup dry white wine (or a whole bottle... whatever... just remember what Juston Wilson used to say- "If you wouldn't drink it you shouldn't cook with it!"
(1 cup organic Chicken Stock)
(Baugette)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
(Take your finger and seperate the skin from the meat of the breast and drumsticks. Take 3-4 slices of the lemon per side of the chicken, and slide under skin)
Rub the cavity and outside of the chicken with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, and season with the salt and pepper. Place the parsley, rosemary, thyme and bay leaf (and fennel) inside the chicken. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and fold the wings under bird. (easier said than done)
In a large Dutch oven or small heavy roasting pan (or the big pot you use to boil spagetti in), heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the chicken and cook, turning carefully to avoid tearing the skin (I tore the skin... make sure your pan is big enough for your chicken), until golden brown on all sides, about 8 minutes.
Remove from the heat and transfer the chicken to a (pyrex lasagna-sized pan). (Take your white wine and pour in the pot you just browned the chicken in, get all the drippins. Pour this sauce over the top, put the juice of the lemon in the pan with the 40 cloves of garlic). Cover tightly with aluminum foil to create an airtight seal. Bake for 1 1/2 hours without removing the cover.
Remove the chicken from the oven and transfer the chicken to a platter and let rest for 10 minutes before carving. (Take juice in the pan and pour into a skillet set on medHi heat. Add a genrous glug of wine, reduce to about a cup. Add the cup of chicken stock, reduce to about half a cup. Take off heat, add about 2T of butter, let melt, put back on heat for about a minute. Makes the MOST DELISH sauce!)
(Take the baugette, slice on a diagonal, put on a cookie sheet, drizzle with EVOO (xtra virgin olive oil), sprinkle both sides liberally with kosher salt, and toast under the broiler on both sides until crispy. Squeeze garlic out of skins, mash with fork, smear over baugette. put chicken on top, pour the delectable pan creme over it all)
I took this from
Emeril's recipie, and kinda cut it in with a recipie I had in a garlic cookbook (which required the chicken to be cut up)
Anyway, it was FANTASTIC. It had an herby, garlicy, citrusy flavor going on- I think that if I had followed Emeril's recipie to the letter it would have been bland, but I kicked it up a notch! (yes, I know, I'm awful, Rachael Ray and Emeril refrences in the same post....)
ps- the other roast chicken I have done is
Chicken in Salt and it was FABULOUS too!
