I’ve had a roasting chicken in my freezer for a few weeks and decided, since there is literally nothing better than roast chicken, to defrost, brine, and roast off the little bird.
When roasting chicken I like to make sure the skin is completely dry. Dry skin, with pats of butter underneath will lead to deliciously crisp chicken skin. Cooking the chicken at a high temperature to start off the browning, and then lowering it for the rest of the cooking period will make a perfectly crisp and tender-juicy bird.
Orange and Marjoram Roast Chicken
3 pound whole chicken, brined (recipe below)
1 bunch carrots (with tops if you prefer)
2 shallots, quartered
4 cloves garlic
1 Orange, cut in quarters
Herb butter
- Remove chicken from brine, dry completely.
- Place carrots, garlic, shallots into a roasting pan, place roasting rack on top. I like to do this so that the juices and fat from the chicken drip down and cook and season the vegetables.
- On top of the roasting rack place the chicken. I put two cloves garlic and 2 quarters of oranges into the cavity of the chicken. The other two quarters of the orange I roasted alongside the chicken, and let the juices inside concentrate to squeeze over the chicken when eating.
- Using your fingers, lift the skin off the breast of the chicken, not tearing or removing, but lifting from the meat.
- Use one hand to hold skin open, and the other to stuff herb butter down under the skin onto the breast meat of the chicken.
- Stuff as much butter under the skin as you can, and anywhere else under the skin of the chicken you desire.
- Pat the skin back down, season the chicken with kosher salt and ground black pepper. Drizzle with a little olive oil and place into the oven at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.
- Turn the oven back down and cook at 350 for 1 hour.
- Check the chicken, if blood is pooling at the back cavity of the bird, then it needs to cook further. If the juices are running clear then it is done.
- Remove the chicken and let it rest for 15-20 minutes to produce an extremely juicy piece of meat.
Herb Butter
1 stick butter, softened
1 T finely chopped fresh marjoram (Oregano is a fine substitute as well)
2 T finely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
1 T finely chopped fresh thyme
1 T orange zest
1/2 t kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
Brine
8 cups water
1/4 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 T herbs de provence
2 T Mustard seeds
1 Orange, juiced and peel
- Start with 4 cups hot water, add in sugar, salt, orange juice and peel, and seasonings. Stir until sugar is dissolved.
- Add remaining 4 cups of cold water. Submerge your chicken into the brine and leave for 2-6 hours.
- Remove Chicken from brine, dry off completely and let sit for an hour to let the water content of the chicken equalize.
Herb Butter Roasted Asparagus
1 bu Asparagus
2 T herb butter
Sprinkle salt
Dash ground black pepper
- Cut your asparagus to size, removing the woodsy bottom part.
- Lay them flat on a tray, and drop pats of softened herb butter on them.
- Using your hands, smear the butter evenly oven all of the asparagus.
- Sprinkle a small amount of salt and pepper (because the butter is heavily seasoned)
- Roast at 400 for 7-10 minutes. Do not over cook, they will turn to mush.
Homemade Tagliatelle Pasta
3 whole large eggs
2 cups durum flour (If you can’t find specialty flours I’ve made it with AP flour at its just delish)
2 T olive oil
1 pinch kosher salt
- Place two cups of flour and salt into a bowl and make a well.
- Beat the eggs in a another bowl with the oil.
- Pour egg mix into the well off the flour.
- Using a fork, start to combine the egg and flour by mixing in a little in from the sides at a time.
- Do this until all the liquid is combined. A dough will start to form.
- Remove this newly formed dough to a lightly floured work surface – a butcher block wood or stainless steel top will work best.
- Using your hands, knead the dough ball until is forms a smooth surface.
- The technique for pasta is a little different than bread dough. You want to roll with your palms, to make even motions to create a smooth surface.
- Kneading the pasta dough onto itself for 6-10 minutes will provide you with a smooth, elastic dough.
- Wrap the ball of dough in plastic and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator and cut in half.
- Using your pasta machine, start on the lowest setting 0. Feed the dough through the machine until you have an even thickness.
- Keep doing this, folding the dough over onto itself to get an even rectangle.
- Do this over and over for each setting until you get to 6 or 7 on your pasta machine.
- It will become thinner with each setting, and you will need to dust the sheet of pasta with flour to prevent it from sticking together.
- When the pasta is thin enough that you can almost see through it. Pass it through the cutter on your machine or cut by hand.
- When the pasta is cut, dust with flour to prevent the strands from sticking together.
- Place the pasta onto a lightly floured sheet pan until ready to cook.
- Cook in rapidly boiling, salted water for 3-5 minutes. When the pasta is fully cooked it will be floating and have a lighter color.
*At this point I had taken all the juices from the chicken and scraped the bottom of the roasting pan for all the flavor. Add this to a sauté pan and started to reduce.
As the hot pasta came out of the pot, I added it to the reducing chicken juices. The result was a deliciously flavorful pasta. At the end before serving I added 2 T of leftover herb butter to pan and mixed it together. The flavor of the chicken jus with the pasta and herb butter was incredible and I recommend if you make this dish to do it the same way.
This meal is a little more involved than the recipes I normally post, but I guarantee that the reward is worth the effort. Delish!
Try it out!
Cheers
Sean Patrick Gallagher