Roasted chicken

Happy Monday to everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

I had a nice trip to the farmer's market and purchased some lovely veggies and herbs, some eggs and a free range chicken. (you can see the raspberries are half gone already. I eat them as I wander the market!)

Do you make roasted chicken? I guess it is one of the simplest meals you can think of, but supposedly it is not foolproof to prepare. The chicken can come out dry as dust, or with flabby skin, or raw in some parts and overcooked in others.

I use my own variation of the Zuni Cafe roast chicken recipe and it works beautifully. This method involves salting the chicken and letting it rest for about a day, then patting it dry and roasting in a very hot oven.

First I cut up a butternut squash into large chunks as a bed for the chicken. Then I cooked the chicken breast side up at 475 degrees for about 30 minutes. After that time I flipped the chicken and cooked breast side down for 15 minutes, then flipped it again for 15 minutes to get the breast skin crisped. It came out perfectly done and the butternut squash pieces were soft and filled with the chicken juices. I threw some chopped basil in there at the last flipping, those are the blackish blobs you see.

The chicken doesn't look beautiful enough for Gourmet magazine but the skin was crispy and the meat was juicy. The bottom appears burned but those were just bits of delicious "fond". After pouring off the extra fat, you can make a wonderful pan sauce by adding some wine, lemon juice or vinegar and a little water to the fond. Yum yum!

Driving to work this morning I saw a peregrine falcon chasing pigeons over the 10 freeway. I think it was a good sign! Have a terrific day! :)