Although being able to make a good roast chicken is supposed to be the sign of a great cook (or maybe BECAUSE of this), I have been intimidated by roasting a whole chicken. The kids are usually a little frightened of meat that actually LOOKS like meat and prefer, boneless, skinless little portions of protein. In spite of all this, I decided to give roast chicken a try. I made this chicken by fusing together two roast chicken recipes:
the first one was included on the back of Colorado Spice Company’s Tarragon Chicken Rub and the second one is Ruth Reichl’s Roast Chicken recipe from her book Garlic and Sapphires (all three of her books are fabulous and you should read them NOW, if you haven’t already).
Basically, I followed the rub directions, but doubled the olive oil, because I was roasting two chickens, instead of one (as specified in the recipe), and then added the lemon and followed the time and temperature instructions in the Ruth Reichl recipe. My oven has a thermometer (as most ovens now do) that can be inserted into meat and then plugged into the side of the oven that will alert you when the interior of the meat has reached a certain, programmable temperature. I LOOOOVE this feature because I’m lazy and forgetful because it’s very helpful and convenient. The chicken turned out beautiful and juicy (although my camera flash makes it looks bland and pale). I will definitely be roasting chicken this way again.
For the potato pancakes, I used this recipe from epicurious. They were delicious, but when they tell you to press the moisture out of the potatoes, they aren’t kidding. Don’t try to save time on that step; you’ll regret it. We served them with sour cream on the side.
The hollandaise was left over from Boy’s special birthday breakfast and was delicious over some simple steamed asparagus.
We ate this dinner last night with my little brother and his wife, who announced to Boy and Girl (Hubby and I already knew) that they were going to have a new baby cousin in May! Little Brother has started a “New Dad” blog that you can check out here:
Little Brother’s “The New Dad” blog
It will be VERY exciting to have another little sprout around next year and Little Bro and his wife (who is a teacher) will make wonderful parents. We are VERY excited and plan to spoil this child rotten.