Comfort Food: Perfect Roast Chicken

Crisp, golden, juicy roast chicken - it's really good

We’re just back from our rear end-numbing road trip to Maine, and as good as it was to get outta town, arriving home feels like work. There’s more laundry and unpacking to do, along with grocery shopping and cleaning the kitchen, since no matter how much I try to clean out the fridge before a vacation, I’m always greeted on my return by some forgotten container of leftovers and yogurt with green hair growing out of it.

A simple meal like roast chicken is so easy and comforting when the cupboard is bare. All you need – besides the chicken of course - are basic seasonings, a hot oven or, if the weather is nice, an outdoor grill.

I don’t know why, but the thought of cooking a whole chicken (yes, with the bones!) can seem daunting to some cooks. For instance, my mother hardly ever served roasted chicken when I was growing up – instead, it was saved for special occasions at a restaurant.

And I know how convenient it’d be to pick up a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store, but I have a problem with those; by the time you get it home, the chicken has been stewing under a heat lamp for hours; dried out and overcooked.

I’ve been making a version of this chicken recipe for years now. Sometimes we roast it on the grill, which produces an even better chicken with crisp, golden skin and a delicious smoky aroma. The method is from Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, a cookbook I consider an absolute necessity in the kitchen.

This is also a great way to make use of any leftovers the next day. Make a chicken taco with some shredded chicken, or pile chunks on some crusty bread and make a panini with basil, goat cheese and slow roasted tomatoes.

Perfect Roast Chicken

1 3 1/2 – 4 pound chicken
1 tablespoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 small lemon
Optional seasonings, depending on what you have on hand:
A handful of fresh herbs, such as rosemary, thyme, basil, parsley
One or two garlic cloves



Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Put the chicken in a shallow roasting pan or casserole and pat the skin dry with paper towels.

Mix together the salt and pepper in a small dish; season the chicken on all sides, rubbing over the skin into the cavity.

Poke about a dozen holes in the lemon with a fork or a skewer and place in the cavity. Tuck the herbs and/or garlic in with the lemon, if using, and tie the legs together with a 12-inch-long piece of kitchen twine.

Arrange the chicken breast side down and roast for 30 minutes. Turn the chicken over and roast an additional 30 minutes.

Raise the oven temperature to 400 degrees for 20 minutes, or until the skin is golden and juices run clear from the thigh when pierced with a fork.

Remove from the oven and let rest 10 minutes before slicing or carving. Save the juices that run out and serve with the chicken.

To roast in an outdoor grill, prepare grill for indirect cooking and heat to medium-high. Place chicken breast down directly on the grill rack and cook as described above.



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Copyright (c) 2007 FamilyStyle Food

When Daddy Cooks: Chicken with Broccoli

Stir-Fried Chicken with Broccoli - and I didn't help

Last night just before dinner time, I found myself starring in my own version of This Old F@#$%ing House, scraping layers of paint off my basement banister in the interest of my After Flood Redo; covered in dust and minuscule pieces of paint. I'm hoping it isn't the lead kind.

That's why it felt so fantastic to delegate cooking to my capable husband, who has a deft hand with a knife and a frying pan, but hardly ever gets enough practice.

Freshly showered and wine glass in hand, I had the pleasure of watching someone else do the cooking. It was nice. I could get used to it.

He chops, he stirs, he cooks!

Chicken with Broccoli, Daddy-style

2 egg whites, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 pound boneless skinless chicken (husband likes thighs)
1/3 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup sake, dry sherry or white wine
1 tablespoon honey or brown sugar
1 head broccoli, trimmed and sliced into bite-sized pieces
1 tablespoon peanut oil
1/2 cup thinly sliced onion
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 hot chili pepper (optional)

Whisk the egg whites, 1 teaspoon cornstarch and salt in a a medium bowl.
Slice the chicken very thinly crosswise and add to the bowl, tossing to coat. Set aside.

In a small bowl, mix chicken broth, soy sauce, sake, honey and remaining cornstarch; set aside.

Blanch broccoli in a pot of boiling water 2 minutes, drain.

Heat the oil in a wok or large skillet over high heat. Toss in the onion, garlic and chili; stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the chicken and stir until no longer pink, 3 minutes more.

Make a well in the center of chicken mixture; pour in soy mixture and bring to boil. Add the broccoli and stir everything together until evenly coated and thickened.

Serve with steamed rice.


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Copyright (c) 2007 FamilyStyle Food

Dinner Alfresco: Grilled Lemon Cumin Chicken with Favas and Feta

Spring Chicken with Fava and Feta

The weather pattern this week almost has me believing we’re living in California wine country or something. Here we are moving straight on to summer, and yet we’ve had a series of clear, warm, dry days followed by cool, breezy evenings that make me just want to live outside. I’m savoring it, because I’m counting on the return of our normal St. Louis days of heat and booty-spanking humidity. Well, dreading them, really.

I’d love to live outside. I’ve been sitting out in the backyard, watching the grass grow (for real) and browsing through the pages of the various catalogs that pile up around here – Restoration Hardware, Pottery Barn, Smith and Hawken – that now have whole publications devoted to decorating the yard. I find the stylish photos very inviting, in a movie-set kind of way. And while I can easily imagine lounging on an oversized espresso-colored cushion and serving dinner on a 7-foot long dining table nestled under a big old olive tree with a chandelier hanging from it, I have to laugh.

When I insist on eating dinner in the backyard, we line up for a few thick coats of Deep Woods repellent and shovel dinner in real fast before hightailing it back inside.

In the spirit of the season, however, I made this Mediterranean-inspired chicken the other night. We ate it outside, pretty much unscathed.

I always buy fresh fava beans in the spring, because I love them. Although they require a tiny bit of extra work (double-peeling), they’re nothing like dried ones, which tend to need a lifetime of soaking and have a dry, starchy texture when cooked. Fresh favas are tender, sweet and greener than Kentucky Bluegrass. They're also fun for kids to peel – the pods are thick and fleshy, and the beans inside rest on a fuzzy white lining like flannel pillowcases.

Grilled Lemon-Cumin Chicken with Favas and Feta

makes 4 servings
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
2 teaspoons ground cumin
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 pounds unshelled fava beans
1/2 cup crumbled feta or ricotta salata cheese


Pound the chicken between sheets of plastic wrap to an even 1/4-inch thickness and place in a large ziptop bag.

Whisk the lemon juice, oil, mint and cumin together. Reserve half, and pour the rest over the chicken. Seal the bag and refrigerate for an hour and up to six hours.

To peel the favas, bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Split the pods with your finger and pop out the beans. Drop them into the water and cook one minute to tenderize the light green skins. Drain and cool them under running water. Using a fingernail, break open the skin and squeeze out the bright green beans.

Rub a grill rack with oil and heat the grill to medium-high heat. Remove chicken from the marinade and season on both sides with salt and pepper. Grill the chicken, covered, about 6 minutes per side.

Serve over couscous or brown rice with the favas, sprinkled with cheese and drizzled with remaining lemon-cumin mixture.



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Competition Chicken

Chicken Tagliata

I’ve mentioned that I have a competitive cooking streak. You wouldn’t guess that if you met me though; I’m well behaved and you can take me places. I promise I won't jump on the table at your favorite restaurant and demand an Iron Chef match with the staff.

The National Chicken Cooking Contest, with a grand prize of $100,000, is taking place Friday, May 4 in Birmingham, with 51 contestants – one from each state. I’ll be there, wearing my red satin sash, representing the state of Missouri.

We’re packing up the Odyssey with my pans and potholders. And the two kids. They’ve never seen me compete at a cook-off, but I don’t have any doubt about what they’re most looking forward to: swimming in the hotel pool.

Tune in next week for the full report!

Chicken Tagliata with Warm Fennel and White Bean Salad
Makes 4 servings

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, divided
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons buttermilk
1 teaspoon ground fennel seeds
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, packed
1 1/2 teaspooons kosher salt, divided
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans, drained
1 fennel bulb, stems trimmed, halved and thinly sliced crosswise
1/3 cup quartered grape tomatoes
1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
1/4 cup Italian parsley leaves
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup baby arugula
1/2 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese curls


Butterfly each breast: cut 3/4 through center of thicker, long side of each chicken breast and open flat. Pound to an even thickness between two sheets of plastic wrap; place chicken in a large shallow baking dish.

Puree 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 2 tablespoons olive oil, buttermilk, fennel seeds and basil in a blender or mini food processor. Pour over chicken, turning to coat. Cover and marinate at least 15 minutes, and up to 2 hours.

In medium saucepan, mix together remaining lemon juice and olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon of the salt, garlic, beans, and sliced fennel. Place over medium heat and simmer about 2 minutes, or until fennel is crisp-tender. Remove from heat and gently stir in tomatoes, lemon zest and parsley.

Sprinkle chicken on both sides with the remaining teaspoon salt and pepper. Spray a large non-stick grill pan with cooking spray and place over medium high heat. Cook chicken 3 minutes per side.

Slice chicken into 1/2-inch thick slices. To serve, spread 1/4 cup arugula over each sliced chicken breast. Spoon fennel salad over arugula and top with cheese.



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General Tso, To Go at Home

General Tso's Chicken (with peanut garnish)

The new "It" cookbook in the Foodist world seems to be the Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook. A few weeks ago, the NYT magazine ran Fuchsia Dunlop's recipe for General Tso's chicken from the book, and today that same paper's food section published a favorable review by Anne Mendelson.

In addition, one of my favorite new sites, Serious Eats, has a great video clip of the author cooking General Tso's chicken that made me want to run into the kitchen to cook. And writer Michael Ruhlman's blog has a nice step-by-step post about it.

I gave in and bought the book. There are lots of appealing recipes in here that I'm very interested to try, like Bowl-Steamed Eggplant with Winter-Sacrifice Beans and Salted Greens (page 223), Chicken with Ginger (page 130) and the intriguing Smacked Cucumbers (page 62) but I felt I had to give the recipe for General Tso's Chicken a go. Dunlop offers two versions; the more authentically Hunan recipe that I made differs in that it lacks the sugar of the Americanized version.

Maybe it's because I don't live in Manhattan or anywhere near the East coast; I don't have a tendency to order Chinese take-out, and don't really have a benchmark to measure this by. I know, I know, where have I been?

I have to tell you, I probably won't make this recipe again unless I change it a tiny bit, and by that I mean eliminating the deep-frying part. That will make this some other kind of recipe - more along the lines of General Mom's Chicken. Granted, I doubled the recipe to accommodate eight boneless chicken thighs instead of four because we are greedy chicken eaters. But still, it didn't seem worth the effort.

Maybe I should have done this in two separate batches, because when I added the doubled amount of potato starch to the marinade mixture, things "seized up" a bit, and it became less of a batter and more of a dough.

And, if you haven't deep-fried anything for a while, I'll remind you that while it isn't really difficult, it is rather time consuming and messy.

By the time we sat down to eat this, I was a little cranky. And after mixing that preciously deep fried chicken with the sauce, you couldn't even tell how it had been cooked. Why not just stir-fry it?

Meantime, I'll be making further investigations into this cookbook, and I'll keep you posted.

General Tso’s Chicken

Adapted from “The Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook,” by Fuchsia Dunlop; as published in the New York Times Magazine, February 4, 2007

For the sauce:
1 tablespoon double-concentrate tomato paste, mixed with 1 tablespoon water
1⁄2 teaspoon potato flour
1⁄2 teaspoon dark soy sauce
11⁄2 teaspoons light soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
3 tablespoons chicken stock or water
For the chicken:
12 ounces (about 4 to 5) skinless, boneless chicken thighs
1⁄2 teaspoon dark soy sauce
2 teaspoons light soy sauce
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons potato flour
1 quart peanut oil, more as needed
6 to 10 dried red chilies
2 teaspoons finely chopped ginger
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons sesame oil
Scallions, thinly sliced, for garnish.

1. Make the sauce by combining all the ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside.

2. To prepare the chicken, unfold the chicken thighs and lay them on a cutting board. Remove as much of the sinew as possible. (If some parts are very thick, cut them in half horizontally.) Slice a few shallow crosshatches into the meat. Cut each thigh into roughly 1⁄4 -inch slices and place in a large bowl. Add the soy sauces and egg yolk and mix well. Stir in the potato flour and 2 teaspoons peanut oil and set aside. Using scissors, snip the chilies into 3⁄4 -inch pieces, discarding the seeds. Set aside.

3. Pour 3 1⁄2 cups peanut oil into a large wok, or enough oil to rise 1 1⁄2 inches from the bottom. Set over high heat until the oil reaches 350 to 400 degrees. Add half the chicken and fry until crisp and deep gold, 3 to 4 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the chicken to a plate. Repeat with the second batch. Pour the oil into a heatproof container and wipe the wok clean.

4. Place the wok over high heat. Add 2 tablespoons peanut oil. When hot, add the chilies and stir-fry for a few seconds, until they just start to change color. Add the ginger and garlic and stir-fry for a few seconds longer, until fragrant. Add the sauce, stirring as it thickens. Return the chicken to the wok and stir vigorously to coat. Remove from the heat, stir in the sesame oil and top with scallions. Serve with rice. Serves 2 to 3.

Copyright (c) 2007 FamilyStyle Food

Friday Night Home Date - Spatchcock!

Butterflied Bird with Lemon and Rosemary

Now before you start thinking that I’m going all medieval on my poultry, let me clarify what “spatchcock” means, and that is simply: a whole chicken with the backbone removed and laid out flat, or butterflied. If you need to know more or are etymologically inclined, check this out.

This is such a great way to roast a whole bird since you can season it well, and it cooks faster and more evenly than it would in its usual form. All you need is a whole chicken and good pair of kitchen shears. Or, even better, ask the professional person behind the meat counter to do the dirty work for you.

We often eat a simply roasted chicken on Friday evenings. It’s tasty, comforting and sometimes there are even leftovers for a weekend lunch.

While the oven is on, I usually throw in a pan of whatever root vegetables I have on hand, cut up and tossed with some olive oil, to cook alongside the bird.

Simple Spatchcocked Chicken with Lemon and Rosemary

1 3-4 pound whole chicken, backbone removed
1 tablespoon kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon olive oil
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon


Heat your oven to 425 degrees.

Mix together the salt, pepper, rosemary, olive oil, lemon zest and juice in a small bowl. Smear the mixture all over the chicken, front and back.

Place a large ovenproof skillet (I use cast iron) over medium-high heat until just smoking, and coat the pan with a little oil. Put the chicken in the pan skin side down and place another heavy skillet on top of the chicken to weigh it down. If you don’t have another pan, just use a small baking sheet with and a brick or large can of tomatoes placed on top. Cook about ten minutes, until the skin starts to turn a nice golden shade of brown.

Remove the weight, turn the chicken over with tongs - gently, so you don’t tear into the delicious, crisp skin - and transfer to the oven to finish cooking, about 12-15 more minutes depending on the size of the chicken.

Copyright (c) 2007 FamilyStyle Food

Cashew Chicken with Roasted Spiced Chickpeas

Gathering the Garbanzos

Last week, I noticed a food-blogging phenomenon that I don’t have a name for. It’s probably been described in Malcolm Gladwell’s book about social trends, The Tipping Point, but I can’t recall what term he has for it. It’s that thing where one day, it seems you see the same recipe, idea, color or low-rise jean style right in front of you, everywhere you look.

Since I can’t enlighten you further, I’ll name this particular incidence the Convergence of Chickpeas:

1. Alanna at A Veggie Venture writes about an easy garbanzo supper.
2. Lydia at The Perfect Pantry displays an essential pantry staple.
3. Lisa at Champaign Taste made a beautiful Italian-style soup.
4. Molly at Orangette describes a loving lunch gift.

Because chickpeas are one of my personal “soul” foods, I have a special place for them in my foodie heart.

I love that you can buy them in a can, drain and eat as they are or embellish them in any number of tasty exotic ways. Also, that they can inspire a whole meal, and the simpler the better. I love boldly spiced dishes like this quick cashew chicken.

It’s another convergence of sorts - Bangkok meets Bangalore.

Cashew Chicken with Roasted Spiced Chickpeas
for 4 servings

1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, drained
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into 1-inch pieces
2 shallots, thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons Asian fish sauce
2 cups baby spinach leaves
1/2 cup roasted, salted cashews, chopped
3 cups cooked rice

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Toss the chickpeas on a baking sheet with 1 tablespoon of the oil, salt, curry powder, cumin and cayenne. Roast for 25 minutes.

Heat a non-stick wok or large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons oil until smoking. Toss in the chicken and cook, stirring, until surfaces are seared, but interior is still pink. Stir in the shallots and cook until softened, 1-2 minutes.

Add the sugar, soy sauce, and fish sauce to the chicken and stir. Cook a few more minutes, until the chicken is cooked through.

Stir in the chickpeas, spinach and cashews. Serve in bowls with hot cooked rice.

Copyright (c) 2007 FamilyStyle Food