Filed under: dinner, recipe | Tags: carrots, childhood, green beans, last meal, nostalgia, roast chicken
Published April 4, 2011
Several years ago, I was watching a cooking competition TV show where the contestants had been tasked to create a last meal for 5 or 6 famous chefs. In an instant, without hesitation or concern, I knew what my last meal would be, should I ever have to request it: roast chicken with sweet potatoes, carrots smothered in butter and green beans.
No matter how much I think about it, I can’t fully explain my choice.
There are so many meals that I love, so many tastes that remind me of adventures, home, favorite memories. 
There’s my mom’s spaghetti, my French love, pain au chocolate, or my favorite childhood meal, green chile chicken enchiladas.
And yet, my choice is roast chicken. It is soothing, simple, rustic. I instantly think of bare feet, dirty from picking herbs in the garden, walking on my parent’s wood floors. The dirt is crunching, there’s a slight feeling of guilt for tracking mud, and everything smells like chicken.
But my nostalgia is out of place. I’ve lived in a city my whole life and, until recently, chicken has always come wrapped in plastic sans innards from the grocery store. (it still comes wrapped in plastic, except now there are guts and farmers)
As it turns out, the nostalgia comes from a previous generation. My mom grew up with chickens – bred specifically for dinner. Upon sighting a 9-pound bird at the Meat Shop, just like the ones they raised, her eyes lit up and the afternoon was filled with excited stories of “our chickens growing up.”
I may have inherited my nostalgia for roast chicken, but the love is all my own.
Roast Chicken
Adapted from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking
If you don’t have a 9-pound chicken, use the following times for cooking: 3-pounds, 1 hour and 10 to 20 minutes; 4-pounds, 1 hour and 15 to 30 minutes; 4 1/2 pounds, 1 hour and 25 to 40 minutes; 5 1/4 pounds, 1 hour and 30 to 45 minutes; 9-pounds, 3 hours.
Ingredients
9-pound chicken
3/4 tsp salt (in 1/4 tsp increments)
5 Tbsp softened butter
1 lemon
1 large onion, quartered
1 carrot, cut into large pieces
A couple sprigs thyme
1 Tbsp cooking oil
1/2 Tbsp shallot or onion
1 cup chicken stock
2 Tbsp softened butter
salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Clean the chicken and pat the outside dry with paper towels. In a 12 inch skillet, melt 1 Tbsp butter. Once hot, begin to brown the chicken, turning the bird once every 3-5 minutes until all sides have a nice, light brown coloring.
Sprinkle the inside of the bird with salt, smear in 1 Tbsp butter and add the onion quarters, carrot pieces, thyme sprigs and lemon into the cavity. Truss the chicken. Rub the skin with the 1 Tbsp butter.
Place the chicken breast up in the roasting pan (it’s easiest to set in a V-shaped roasting rack inside the pan). In a small sauce pan, combine 2 Tbsp butter and 1 Tbsp oil, cook until just melted.
Allow the chicken to continue browning for 15 minutes, turning it every 5 minutes and basting after each turn, finish with the chicken resting on one side. Reduce oven to 350 degrees. Leave the chicken on its side and baste every 10 minutes, using any fat collected in the roasting pan if you run out of the butter and oil mixture.
Halfway through the cooking time, salt the chicken with 1/4 tsp salt and turn on its other side.
Fifteen minutes before the end of the estimated cooking time, salt with 1/4 tsp salt and turn the chicken breast up.
Using a thermometer, check for doneness. The breast should read 170 degrees and the thigh should be at 180. Let the chicken rest for 10 – 15 minutes under tented foil before carving.
For the sauce, use the roasting pan. Remove all but 2 tbsp chicken fat. Add in the shallots or onion and cook slowly. Add in the chicken stock and boil rapidly, scraping up any fond. Season with salt and pepper and, if desired, add in 1 tbsp butter.
Serve with roast carrots, green beans and sweet potatoes or potatoes.
Filed under: challenge, dinner, holiday, local, phoenix | Tags: apple, Arizona, carrots, challenge, cheese, chicken, dates, farmer cheese, farmers markets, local, Phoenix, potato, recipe, sausage, stuffing, sweet potato, thanksgiving
A quick little note: I don’t believe in the “I’ve been super busy” excuse because everyone is busy … but things have been crazy around here lately. So, in an effort to get this post out (finally) there are no recipes with it. Don’t worry, they’re coming, just not right now. Once finals are done, I promise.
Yes, Thanksgiving was two weeks ago. Yes, ideally, I should have posted this before Thanksgiving. All that being said, however, this Thanksgiving was amazing. It was the first time I’ve really jumped in and cooked – and it was a blast. We had a pretty non-traditional meal, but, then again, we wouldn’t do it any other way.
In trying to adapt this traditional meal to one made with all local products, I was surprised by how few sacrifices needed to be made. In fact, the only things cut from our traditional meal were the cranberry sauce (which doesn’t go with chicken anyway) and cherry pie (which we still had – it just wouldn’t be a holiday without a cherry pie).
We also didn’t have pumpkin pie -which we could have made from scratch – opting for sweet potato instead. For those of you out there who absolutely love pumpkin, let me tell you, the sweet potato version was actually – gasp – better. Now, before I get any hate mail, let me do some explaining. This pie was both sweet and savory and had a wonderfully rich sweet potato flavor. Unlike pumpkin pie where one flavor is dominant, this recipe had a lot of depth and each bite was its own, unique flavor. By the next day the flavors were so complex that each bite required a little bit of time to explore. It will most likely become our Thanksgiving staple from now on.
This year, we cooked a chicken – which is something we’ve been doing for several years now – and it was our first sample of local, pasture raised chicken. I’m not sure if there’s a better way to describe it, but it tasted like, well, chicken. The meat had an actual flavor, which isn’t something you always get with the bland, dry grocery story variety. We had our perennial favorites – stuffing and salad. And instead of sweet potato casserole this year (made without marshmellows, thank you very much) we had scalloped potatoes.
Shopping for all these ingredients wasn’t nearly as challenging as I’d expected. I’d started the week before with the local chicken, bread (the nine-grain bread from the stuffed pumpkin was so delicious that I had to repeat it), potatoes, onion and cheese. The day before the big dinner, I stopped by the Wednesday market in Phoenix to pick up everything else I needed.
While purchasing the sweet potatoes from Horny Toad Farms I was very eagerly talked into some local medjool dates. The little guy selling them was really worried I’d balk at the price and did everything possible to prepare me for the “big cost.” By the time he was ready to tell me the price, I was concerned that I’d fallen in love with $25 dates. Turns out it was $7.50 for a carton – which, in my book, is a steal. In the end, I was so happy I bought them because they were perfect stuffed with Udder Delights cranberry farmers cheese and topped with pomegranate seeds.
I picked up the rest of my required produce and headed over to the Tempe Farmers market to get butter, some more cheese (because you can never have enough) and breakfast sausage for the stuffing. All told, it took three trips to get everything – which really – isn’t any more than normal.
With the paired down menu and lack of a turkey, the cooking requirement was manageable. My Mom cooked the pies in the morning, Dad started the chicken around 1:30 in the afternoon and with an hour of cooking time left I started assembling the stuffing – made with breakfast sausage from the Meat Shop – and scalloped potatoes. Yes, we all helped, but this was a Thanksgiving dinner that one person could have reasonably cooked in one day.
The best part of the day was experiencing some the traditional flavors in season, fresh and locally grown. We had bread made by neighbors (they go around the neighborhood once a week selling fresh, homemade bread), eggs raised by friends and a bird that lived a normal life before being sacrificed for a special meal.
I’m not one to get overly sentimental … oh, who am I kidding, I cry at cheesy movies … but this meal was really special. While the food may have tasted better thanks to its freshness, knowing it came from people who care about our and the land’s health made the meal all the better. Sharing it with my wonderful parents and working together to get it on the table made it a truly wonderful holiday. I look forward to more local Thanksgivings for years to come.
Happy Holidays and Bon Appetit!
Quick Note: Here’s the photos that will go with the recipes, you know, so you come back and read them …
Sweet Potato Pie
From America’s Test Kitchen
Apple Sausage Stuffing
From America’s Test Kitchen
Scalloped Potatoes
Roast Chicken
From America’s Test Kitchen
Stuffed Dates
Eating Local in Phoenix 