A Classic Sunday Supper

Hopefully this will be the end of the cold weather.  Last Sunday we enjoyed a rustic French Supper of roasted chicken, carrots & onions, with fingerling potatoes with thyme and chef's bread.  It was a very easy meal to prepare and I loved the way it was presented - everything on one platter. We even carved at the table. For this roasted chicken I borrowed from 2 classic recipes, dominantly Barefoot Contessa's Perfect Roast Chicken with a touch of Dorie Greenspan's Roast Chicken for les paresseux.  Hope you enjoy!

Blended Family Roast Chicken
1 5 to 6 pound organic roaster
1 lemon, quartered
1 bunch of carrots, washed and sliced in 2 inch chunks
1 sweet onion, quartered and thickly sliced
Sprigs of fresh thyme (8) and parsley (4)
Olive oil
Salt & Pepper
2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 baguette of French bread, sliced in half

Preheat oven to 425 degrees
Throw the carrots and onions into the bottom of a large Dutch oven.  Toss with a drizzle of olive oil and salt & pepper.  Push the vegetables to the edges of the oven and place the baguette slices in the middle.  Add the lemon quarters, parsley & thyme to the cavity of the bird, massage the skin with olive oil and then lay the bird on the bread.  Salt and pepper the skin and sprinkle with the garlic.  Roast uncovered for about an hour and a half.  Check that the juices run clear & transfer to your serving platter as well as the carrots and onions & any of the sliced baguette you have not inhaled yet.  Allow it to rest, lightly tented for about 10 to 15 minutes. 
I also served my fingerling potatoes with thyme.

Speaking of Rustic, he went along with the theme of the evening

Roast Chicken for Les Paresseux on French Fridays

This week's selection for the French Fridays with Dorie cooking club was the roast chicken for les paresseux (roasted chicken for lazy people).  It was a perfect Tuesday night supper.  The thing about this recipe is it is so simple, you prep the chicken (all of ten minutes) and then put it in the over for 90 minutes.  It is so simple that I felt weird. 

I did add a quartered lemon & some flat leaf parsley to the cavity.  The really unique thing about this dish is that the bird is roasted on top of slices of bread. I took half of a baguette & sliced it long ways.  I rested the breast portion over the thickest portion of the bread.  Oh wow - the bread really is the chef's treat.  Crunchy and delicious.  I even made it lazier and skipped adding the veggies to the pot and fixed fingerling potatoes with thyme & reheated our left over peas with pancetta.  

Autumn Roasting Racks

Back in August I gave you my Summer Roasting Rack & let you know that I do change them up for the seasons.  So here is my version for autumn. Hope you Enjoy!


Autumn Roasting Rack
4 vine ripe tomatoes, chopped
1 bunch carrots, peeled & quartered
1 lb fingerling potatoes, sliced into 1 inch pieces
1 onion, diced
1 cup black olives, halved
1 tablespoon of minced garlic
S & P
1 tablespoon of Herbs de Provence 
Drizzle of Olive oil

Mix all together in the bottom of your roasting pan.  Place a 5 lb bird on top of the rack with the skin seasoned with olive oil, S&P, & Herbs De Provence and stuffed with a quartered lemon or two and as much garlic as you want. Roast at 425 degrees for an hour and a half. Put the bird on the carving board & let the bird rest, tented for about 20 minutes before you carve.  Taste test veggies, give them a good toss and adjust seasonings as needed.  Put back in cooled oven to keep warm.  Serve veggies on the side.

Roasting Racks

Sometimes books come along that make you change everything.   One little book reconnected me with the love, purpose and alternative motives that go into cooking.  Thankfully this one little book was tuned into an amazing series known as the Mitford Books by Jan Karon.  Ms. Karon wrote so beautifully that I would be left drooling for crab casserole, orange marmalade cake & The Book of Common Prayer every time I said goodnight to Mitford (her fictional town in NC).  Ms. Karon also released a companion to the series - the Mitford Cookbook and Kitchen Reader.  She compiled the best food passages from 10 of the books with the actual recipes she envisioned being prepared. In the books roasted chicken is Cynthia's thing (the female lead of the story -you will love her, trust me).  The chicken was always received with such admiration that I truly believed it was something very hard to do (this was years ago). When I actually tried roasting I found it was easy, however the flavor was hard to capture. In the "Kitchen Reader" I found the key - the roasting rack.  Forget a metal rack (which every book will insist you need) - try onions!  It is true! All you are trying to do is provide a barrier between the pan and the bird to prevent burning or drying out.  The veggies add the flavor & create an amazing side dish. My roasting racks have now become seasonal. Hope you enjoy!

Summer Roasting Rack
3 heirloom tomatoes, chopped
1 sweet onion,chopped
1 cup of olives, halved
1 pint of heirloom tomatoes,  halved
tablespoon of minced garlic
salt, pepper, tablespoon of herbs De Provence & drizzle of Olive oil
Mix all together in the bottom of your roasting pan.  Place a 5 lb bird on top of the rack with the skin seasoned with olive oil, S&P, & Herbs De Provence and stuffed with a quartered lemon and as much garlic as you want. Roast at 425 degrees for an hour and a half and you will be happy! Let the bird rest, tented for about 20 minutes before you carve.  Serve veggies on the side. If you want to go ahead and add quartered new potatoes to the rack (I normally do).