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Bistro
Jennifer Garant
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Garlic, Ischia...
Walter Bibikow
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Italian Vegetables III
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Menu for Bistrot du Peintre, Art Nouveau Design, Paris, France
Per Karlsson
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La Belle Cuisine
Okay, you
may well be asking, "Why ANOTHER roast chicken with garlic
recipe?". And
with good reason. We do have quite a number of excellent roast chicken recipes in
our archives, including
Laurie Colwin's Roast Chicken and
Bistro 110's
Roast Chicken with Rosemary and Garlic. Do you NEED another
one? Perhaps not. But what's that got to do with it? We probably do not NEED
a
bazillion
cheesecake recipes, either, but a lot of us have that many.
And besides. This is not
just another roast chicken recipe. Trust me. This is
roast chicken with a most scrumptious twist, indeed. I offer it with no
apology
whatsoever for the possible appearance of excess. There is always
room for
one more recipe, right? Especially this one!
Roast Chicken with Garlic and Lemon
Chef Gordon Hamersley
In Julia's Kitchen
with Master Chefs
by Julia Child, with Nancy Verde Barr,
1995, Alfred A.
Knopf
 
“There’s no way that
Hamersley’s
Bistro could drop this very special roast
chicken from their menu; it has
been there since 1987 and remains one of
he restaurant’s most-ordered
items. In their early days together, Gordon
Hamersley and his then sous-chef,
Jody Adams, wanted to create a special
chicken dish that could, in a
way,
become a Hamersley signature. For a
while they played around with the
idea of a poularde demi-deuil – ‘chicken
in half-mourning’ – where slices
of
black truffle are stuffed under the skin
of a fat roaster. But that
proved to be
vastly expensive, as
well as infinitely
time-consuming.
They finally developed a chicken marinated in lemon, garlic, and herbs
before
being roasted alongside potatoes, onions, and more garlic. Here’s
the
surprise ending – the chicken is carved into breast-wing and leg-thigh
portions, returned
to the pan, surrounded by its cooking liquids, and set
under the broiler. The
skin
becomes admirably crisp under the hot broiler
while the meat remains
juicy
because it is submerged.
It’s a real treat of a chicken, and how generous
of
Chef Gordon to give
away this delicious
secret!”
Two
Chickens – For 4 hearty eaters, or
for 6 to 8 moderate appetites
For the marinade
1 bunch of fine fresh flat-leaf parsley
(reserve 12 to 14 leaves for
garnish)
3 large garlic cloves, peeled
and roughly chopped
3 large shallots, peeled and
roughly chopped
1 tablespoon mixed dried
herbes de Provence
or
Italian herb seasoning
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
6 tablespoons olive oil
Salt
2 tablespoons cracked black pepper
1 lemon
The vegetables
1 or 2 large Spanish onions, skin on
2 or 3 baking potatoes, about 9 ounces
each,
scrubbed and unpeeled
1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil
Other ingredients
1/2 cup rich chicken stock in a 6-cup saucepan
1 1/2 lemons
1 head of roasted and separated garlic cloves
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Special
equipment suggested
1 food processor fitted with steel blade
1 zester (useful but not essential)
1 shallow roasting pan with rack,
large enough for two chickens
A jelly-roll pan (for the vegetables)
A 2-quart saucepan (for the final sauce)
A baking/serving dish that can go from
oven to table (optional)
Preparing the Marinade: Wash the parsley and pat very
dry. Chop it coarsely and drop into the bowl of the processor. Add the
garlic, shallots, herbs, rosemary, and mustard. Process until the
ingredients are finely chopped, then, with the machine running, drizzle in
the olive oil and run
until the mixture is fluid. Transfer to a bowl and
stir in a big pinch of salt
and several grinds of pepper. Use the zesting
tool or a vegetable peeler
and knife to remove long strips of the lemon
peel. Stir the zest into the marinade and taste very carefully for
seasoning.
Marinating the Chicken: Season the insides of the
chickens with salt
and pepper and set them on the rack in the roasting pan.
Rub all over
with
the marinade, using either a rubber spatula or your hands
[your
hands!]
Cover closely with plastic wrap, and let them marinate for
about 1 hour at room temperature, or 4 to 6 hours in the refrigerator.
(Note: Although you may be tempted to let the chickens marinate
longer,
beware – the flavors
can become too strong.)
Preliminaries: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. The
vegetables and chickens will share the oven, and roast together in separate
pans. The chickens go in first, since they take longer to cook.
Roasting the Chickens: Set the chickens on the rack
in the roasting
pan, and place in the preheated oven. Roast for about 1 hour
to 1 hour
and 20 minutes, basting with the marinade and/or pan juices
occasionally,
until
the leg bone separates easily when twisted, or a
thermometer in the
thigh
registers 165 to 170 degrees F. Remove from the oven and
let the
chickens rest at least 20 minutes to 1/2 hour before cutting themm
for broiling.
Roasting the Vegetables: Meanwhile, place the empty
jelly-roll pan in
the oven to heat. Shave away the root end of the onion,
leaving the core
root intact but trimming off the dark, rooty exterior, then
cut the onion
into quarters through the root. Cut the potatoes into quarters
the long
way.
When the jelly-roll pan is hot, and while it is still in the
oven, pour
in the
oil. Swiftly and carefully arrange the potatoes and onions
cut sides
down,
on the pan, season with salt and pepper, and roast for about
an
hour. The vegetables are done when they are tender and very brown. Iff
the
onions become tender before the potatoes, remove the onions from
the pan and
set aside. When the potatoes are tender, remove the pan
from the oven
and
return the onions to the pan minus their dry outer
skins. Set aside at
room
temperature; they will be reheated before
serving.
Preparing for the Second Cooking: Preheat the broiler
and set one
oven rack on top and one on the bottom. Transfer the chickens to
a
cutting board and remove the rack from the roasting pan. Degrease the
pan
juices and
pour them into the chicken stock. Deglaze the pan by
pouring in a
little
of
the stock, set over heat, scrape up the caramel-
ized bits, and pour
back
into the stock.
Carve around each leg bone
to remove the leg and thigh in one piece.
Leaving
as much skin on
each chicken as possible, remove the breast and wing in one
piece,
cutting and pulling – it should release easily. Arrange the chicken
pieces, skin side up, either back in the same roasting pan without
the rack,
or in a baking/serving dish. Cut the whole lemon into 1/4-
inch
slices and
scatter over the chicken. Ladle the pan juices into
the pan but
not over the
birds, and distribute the roasted unpeeled
garlic cloves around.
Ahead-of-Time Note: The dish may be prepared to this
point an hour
in advance of serving. Preheat the broiler to high before
continuing.
Broiling the Chicken and Reheating the Vegetables:
Set the pan so
the surface of the chicken is about 3 inches under the
heating element,
and, watching carefully, broil 6 to 8 minutes, until the
skin is crisp and
the meat has thoroughly heated through. If necessary,
rotate the chicken pieces so
they crisp evenly. While the chicken is
broiling on the top
rack, place the vegetables on the bottom rack and leave
just until they
are reheated.
Making the Sauce: When the chicken is ready,
carefully pour the juices from the roasting pan into a saucepan with the
chicken stock, and turn the heat to high. Squeeze in the juice of the half
lemon, bring to a boil and
reduce by about half. The sauce should be
slightly thickened and lemony
in taste. Remove from heat and whisk in the
tablespoon of butter. Taste
for seasoning.
Serving: Arrange the potatoes and onions on a serving
platter or on
individual plates. At Hamersley’s they serve each guest a
whole leg-thigh
and a whole breast-wing portion; you may want to cut the
chicken into smaller portions. In any case, arrange the chicken on top of
the vegetables, scatter on the lemon slices and garlic cloves, and pour the
sauce around,
not on, the chicken. Garnish with the reserved parsley leaves,
and serve.
Featured Archive Recipe:
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Smoked Mozzarella and Tomato Salad
A Tribute to Julia Child
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