Roasted Chicken with Onion Gravy
Winter mornings in Southern California are soft and cool. Often a cloud cover rolls
in, as gray as dove's wings. It surprises some to learn that Angelinos are
early risers, but desk jobs from movie studios to business firms start as early
as six a.m. During that commute, numerous other early birds are to be seen:
joggers and gym bunnies wearing fleece, dog walkers yawning as their
charges surge forward, baristas in brown aprons dispensing coffee from
streetside windows.
The busy
pace of the week goes far to explain the leisurely pace of off-hours living. Though
LA is known for its busy nightlife, a night on the town is an occasional
indulgence, truly a special occasion. For every Saturday of movie dates or mall
walks, there are many more of keeping it local. Neighborhoods, known in LA
parlance as pockets, are incredibly important, because we spend more time
within our own enclave than we ever thought we would when we moved out here.
That is one of the reasons zip code is so important!
Sometimes,
staying local means not leaving the home at all. Aside from the sacred details
of everyday living such as groceries, laundry, cleaning, there is much to
recommend busy days at home. Sometimes it's a necessity, for as we were
reminded within the last weeks, it takes a day or two to take down and store
the holiday decorations, set up the home office, change the linens, and
otherwise recalibrate for a new year after winter holiday hustle and bustle
sent the old one out in style.
I firmly
believe that busy days at home deserve equal respect as the job of the work
week. Many of us cap off a day of hibernation by preparing a special dinner at
home. Stew is a favorite, prepared with attention to quality and gently asimmer
on the stovetop, harkening to the hearth that was the core of our ancestors'
homes and is the core of our instinct to keep home. Every family has its own
special dinners at home, from Sunday pot roast to grandma's goulash, from a
mess of barbeque to a pot of Cassoulet, from spaghetti and meatballs to steaks on the grill. Special dinners at home provide the gift of anticipation, of
something special to look forward to, of something comforting and celebratory
at once.
In our
urban home, we have marked such days with everything from lasagna to chocolate
cake, but the dish we always look forward to is roasted chicken. Snicker if you
want at the idea of good ol' chicken being a special dish, but before the
advent of mass husbandry, chicken was much less common at the American table
than it is today. That is the sentiment behind Herbert Hoover's famous campaign
slogan "a chicken in every pot." That roasted chicken was indeed an
event of a meal, borne on a platter of braised vegetables and herbs, carved
tableside with as much reverence as the Thanksgiving turkey. Plates were filled
with slices of light and dark meat, with a generous serving of those fragrant,
flavorful vegetables. Baskets of warm rolls, topped with a golden gloss of
sweet butter, were passed along with a boat of thin, flavorful gravy.
As we dig
in over busy weekends at home, here is my recipe for roasted chicken. It cooks
slow and steady, perfuming the air with savory steam that will have mouths
watering by the time dinner is served. Pair roasted chicken with a well-rounded
white wine such as Bridlewood's exemplary Chardonnay or Conundrum's juicy white blend. The vegetables will make a hearty enough side dish, but if you want, also
serve wild rice with currants and ramps or cream cheese and chive biscuits. And
don't forget dessert - try spice cake, banana pudding, or a plate of home-bakedcookies.
Roasted
Chicken with Onion Gravy
Roasting
chickens are labeled either as roasters or as broilers. Whenever possible, use
humanely raised and harvested chickens, preferably free-range and grain fed. If
these are not easily available at the supermarket, they should be available at
a butcher shop. This recipe makes enough for two with leftovers; if you use a
larger bird, adjust the cooking time, the amount of vegetables, and the size of
the baking pan accordingly.
For the
chicken
1 six to
eight pound roasting chicken
2 lemons
1 large
Spanish onion
4 medium
cloves garlic, peeled
Several
sprigs of fresh thyme, oregano, or a mixture of the two
1 small
sprig fresh rosemary
Dry
vermouth
Extra-virgin
olive oil
Kosher
salt
Freshly
ground black pepper
For the braised
vegetables
2 - 3
carrots
2 ribs
celery
1 parsnip
4 - 6 baby
potatoes, such as Yukon Gold, Red Bliss or a mix
1 leek
2 - 3
sprigs fresh thyme
Extra
virgin olive oil
Salt
Freshly
ground black pepper
For the
gravy
1/4 cup chicken stock, plus extra if needed
1
tablespoon cake flour
1
tablespoon unsalted butter
Dried
parsley
Preheat
the oven
- Position the oven rack onto the bottom third of the oven.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
- Unwrap the chicken while holding it over the sink, legs downward and supporting the bottom.
- Remove and discard giblets and neck if any and either compost or freeze them for another usage. If the inside of the cavity where the giblets were stored is noticeably bloody, lightly rinse the cavity with cool water.
- Still holding the chicken over the sink, pat the chicken dry with paper towels.
- Sprinkle the outside and inside of the chicken liberally with approximately 1 tablespoon kosher salt.
- Transfer the chicken to a clean cutting board reserved for poultry. Cover the chicken lightly with paper towels and allow to set 1/2 hour on the board.
- Meanwhile, peel the onion and slice it into circles. Wash the lemons with food-safe vegetable cleanser and rinse them until they feel clean. Slice one lemon into thin wheels. Discard the blossom and root ends of the sliced lemon.
- Butter the interior of the roasting pan. Place the roasting pan on a rimmed baking sheet.
- Place the onions in rows along the bottom of the pan, overlapping if necessary, until you have used the entire onion and covered the bottom of the pan.
- Place the lemon wheels on top of the onions, working along the sides first and then filling up the middle with extra lemon wheels if any.
- After 1/2 hour, gently blot away the moisture that should have risen to the skin surface of the chicken, as well as the salt crystals. There is no need to blot the interior cavity.
- Gently transfer the chicken to the roasting pan, breast up, settling the chicken nicely on the bed of onions and lemons. Tuck the tips of the wings under the back of the bird.
- Cut the remaining lemon into wedges. Place the lemon wedges, the garlic cloves, and the thyme/oregano into the cavity of the chicken.
- Cut a piece of kitchen twine about the length of your forearm. Tie one end of the twine to the lower end of one of the chicken's drumsticks, where the bone sticks out. Use the twine to bring the two lower ends of the drumstick together. Wind the twine around the untied drumstick so that the two drumsticks stay in place. Wind the twine around the flap of skin over the cavity so that the drumsticks and that flap are all nicely pulled together. Tie up the twine and cut away and discard any excess.
- Pour a five count of extra virgin olive oil on the highest part of the chicken's breast bone. Use a silicon brush to brush the entire exposed surface of the bird with olive oil, adding additional olive if needed.
- Sprinkle the entire exposed surface of the bird with a light dusting of kosher salt and several grindings of fresh black pepper.
- Position the vermouth bottle at the lip of the baking dish so that the spout pours into the dish but doesn't splash the bird. Gently pour enough vermouth into the baking dish to cover the onion-lemon mixture by about 1/4 inch.
- Cover the dish (see below if you need to improvise a cover) and place on a rimmed baking sheet. Place the baking sheet containing the covered dish on the low rack in the oven.
- Bake the chicken, undisturbed, for 20 minutes per pound, typically two hours for a six-pound broiler.
- Using the timetable in step 18 above, subtract fifteen minutes from the calculated total cooking time. At that point, safely check the bird by safely lifting a corner of the lid or cover and inserting a meat thermometer into the meat part of the thigh, being careful not to touch the thermometer to bone. The thermometer should register 160 degrees F or higher. If not, recover and test again in ten minutes or until the bird reaches that internal temperature when tested.
- Once the bird reaches 160 degrees F or higher, safely remove the lid or cover from the pan. Continue roasting the bird until the skin is crispy and golden brown and the internal temperature of the bird reaches 165 degrees F or higher when tested.
- Turn the oven off and let the bird sit in the oven for five minutes
- After the chicken has rested in the oven for five minutes, safely remove the baking sheet containing the roasting pan from the oven. Place the baking sheet safely out of reach on a heatproof surface while it cools down.
- Once the pan and bird are cool enough to work with, gently use poultry lifters to transfer the roasted chicken to a meat carving board to rest. Proceed with using the pan juices to make the gravy per below.
- Position an in-sink colander into place. Place a vegetable peeler, a sharp kitchen knife, and a cutting board reserved for vegetables within reach of the colander.
- Remove the stem and blossom ends of the carrots. Peel the carrots and parsnip. Safely use the knife to cut the carrots and parsnip into bite-sized pieces. Transfer the peeled, cut carrots and parsnip to the colander.
- Remove the calloused bottoms and any bruised or discolored tops from the celery. Cut the celery into bite-sized pieces. Transfer the cut celery to the colander.
- Rinse the vegetables in the colander under cool water. Allow to drain while preparing the potatoes.
- Fill a medium bowl 1/2 with cool water. Add a teaspoon of salt to the water and gently agitate the bowl so that the salt mixes with the water.
- Remove and discard flowering eyes or discolorations from the potatoes. Cut the potatoes into bite-sized pieces, dropping the cut potatoes into the salt water s you go.
- Remove the root end from the leek. Remove the tough green top leaves from the leek just at the point on the vegetable where the dark green leaves begin to lighten to pale green. Inspect the leek. If it is noticeably gritty, cut the leek into coins and soak the coins in a bowl of water, planning to change out the water once to get rid of all of the grit. If the leek is not noticeably gritty, cut the leek into coins and leave on the cutting board for the moment.
- Place a large saute pan on the stovetop and turn the burner to medium-high. Drizzle the pan with a five count of olive oil. The bottom of the pan should be coated with a nice film of oil.
- Once the oil starts to shimmer, gently transfer the carrots, celery and parsnip to the pan. Sprinkle the vegetables with salt. Gently stir the vegetables. Cover the pan halfway and sweat the vegetables, stirring often, until they begin to soften, approximately five minutes.
- Meanwhile, add the leeks to the colander and rinse the leeks very well under cool water. Empty the bowl containing the salted potatoes into the colander with the leeks. Agitate the colander to express as much water as possible. If necessary, rinse and agitate again to make sure that the potatoes and leeks are clean.
- After the vegetable mixture in the pan has sweated for five minutes, remove the pan from the burner. Gently add the leeks, potatoes, a sprinkling of salt, and several grindings of fresh black pepper to the pan. Add a three-count of olive oil to the pan, and strip the thyme sprigs over the mixture. Stir the vegetable mixture together.
- Return the pan to the burner. Cover the pan and reduce the heat to low.
- Braise the vegetables, covered, until very soft and fragrant, approximately 45 minutes.
- Check the vegetables occasionally as they braise, stirring them and adding more olive oil to the pan if the pan runs dry.
- Once the vegetables are cooked, turn the burner off and keep the pan warm by placing it on the back of the stovetop until time to serve.
- Place the butter into a small saucepan. Melt the butter over low heat.
- Once the butter is melted, add the flour to the pan. Whisk the flour and butter together to form a roux, a thick paste that should smell buttery and slightly toasty.
- Position a large metal sieve over the saucepan. Working very carefully, use potholders to lift the baking pan off of the baking sheet. Tilt the corner of the baking pan over the sieve so that the roasting juices that have collected in the pan slowly drain into the sieve. Safely use a silicon spatula to scrape the roasted onions and lemons into the sieve along with any of the juices that remained in the roasting pan. Return the roasting pan to the baking sheet.
- Use the silicon spatula to press the onions and lemons against the sieve so that all of the roasting juices drain into the saucepan. Set the sieve and any aromatics remaining in it aside.
- Use the whisk to incorporate the pan juices with the roux by stirring gently but constantly over low heat. Within a few minutes, a thin gravy should form. Add the chicken stock to the gravy once the mixture has thickened. Cover the saucepan and turn the burner off.
- Use tongs or a carving set to carve the chicken. Place the breast meat, drumsticks, and thighs in the center of a serving platter, doing your best to preserve the crispy skin.
- Gently spoon the braised vegetables around the chicken on the platter.
- Give the gravy a final whisk, adding a dash of chicken stock if it has gotten too thick. Transfer the gravy to a gravy boat or other serving vessel.
- Lightly sprinkle the chicken, vegetables and gravy with dried parsley.
- Pass the platter and gravy at the table, with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.
To improvise a roasting cover, pull one or two generous-sized sheets of aluminum foil (depending on the size of the pan and its contents). If two sheets, match the two sides, shiny side out, like you are matching panels of fabric. Fold the sheets over and then fold over again to form a seam. Spray the shiny side of the foil with non-stick cooking spray. When the dish is ready to go into the oven, gently center the foil over the dish, shiny side down. Crimp the edges of the foil to the edge of the baking dish. It won't fit exactly which is okay, as that will allow some of the steam to escape, which is necessary for safety reasons.
Equipment
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