Roasted Chicken with herbs, garlic and potatoes
November 14, 2009 • Category: Main Dish
I have been thinking about the universal appeal of such a dish. You can serve it in any country or community, you will always have a captured audience. And yet it is so simple. In Lebanon, you will find holes-in-the-wall in the most remote villages that serve roasted chicken with a side of garlic mayonnaise.
I remember when the French chef Joel Robuchon opened his restaurant in Paris and everybody was talking about his ” pommes de terre purée” (mashed potatoes). Imagine that! Well, there are mashed potatoes and mashed potatoes. It is true! There is a huge difference between a dish of mashed potatoes out of dried potato flakes and one made with farm potatoes. I for one, adore the potatoes I eat when I am in Lebanon. They have TASTE. When I hear my kids raving about McDonalds French fries, which taste like fried cardboard to me, I really feel alienated!
Never mind! This is a plain roast chicken, stuffed with a bunch of herbs from my patio and served with potatoes, pearl onions and garlic, with a garlic sauce on the side. I made the garlic sauce in the blender while the chicken was roasting. The last half hour of baking the chicken I basted it with the garlic sauce. I cooked the vegetables on the stove because I feel like I have more control this way, but you can just as easily throw them in with the chicken and shake them from time to time as they roast.
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 3 1/2 pound chicken, preferably free-range and organic
- a handful of fresh herbs ( such as tarragon, parsley, sage, oregano, basil)
- 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter and 4 tablespoons of olive oil
- salt, pepper
- vegetables: 1 pound of white potatoes, peeled and cut in slices , a handful of pearl onions, a handful of garlic (at least 15 cloves, keep 5 to roast whole with the potatoes, the rest for the sauce)
- 2 lemons, cut in halves
- 1/3 cup of olive oil (for the garlic sauce)
METHOD:
- Preheat the oven at 400F.
- Rub the chicken with a cut lemon all over. Pat dry with a paper towel and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Throw a lemon half in the chicken cavity and tie the chicken with a string (if you have it), so that the wings and legs are nicely tied.
- Place the chicken on a roasting rack or in a baking pan, previously covered in foil. Cut the herbs with kitchen scissors. Loosen the skin on the breast side and stuff it underneath with all the herbs, reaching as far back as possible (so they don’t bulge up too much).
- Melt the butter and mix with the olive oil. Pour one half of the butter mixture in a skillet and use the other half to brush on the chicken. Place the chicken in the oven.
- Now heat the skillet and place all the vegetables in it, stirring from time to time as they fry gently in the butter mixture.
- After 20 minutes of baking, reduce the oven temperature to 350F and start basting the chicken.
- Make the garlic sauce: Place all the garlic cloves (minus the ones frying whole with the potatoes and onions) and a pinch of salt in a mortar or mini-processor and process with a tablespoon of oil for a few minutes, adding more oil gradually until the mixture is creamy. Squeeze half a lemon on the mixture (or a tablespoon) and process a few minutes longer.
- Start basting the chicken with the garlic sauce. At this point, the vegetables should be done and can be placed in the dish alongside the chicken. Remove the chicken from the oven and serve with the vegetables and the extra garlic sauce on the side.
NOTE:
It is hard to give exact time for baking the chicken; it should take about 45 minutes, depending on the oven. When the chicken flesh is pierced and the juices are clear, it is done.
Comments
13 Comments • Comments Feed
Rosa says:
That roasted chicken looks so scrumptious!
Cheers,
Rosa
On November 14, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Joumana says:
Rosa
Thank you for all your encouraging comments!
On November 14, 2009 at 8:29 pm
Evalia says:
We love chicken at home!!! this one seem so delicious!! Have a nice week end!
On November 15, 2009 at 9:49 am
Christie @ Fig&Cherry says:
Absolutely love the presentation with the herbs sticking out – I’m going to do that next time I serve a whole chicken!
On November 15, 2009 at 11:44 am
Joumana says:
@Christie: I thought I should cover the cavity with something!
@Evalia: I can vouch that the quality of the bird makes all the difference!
On November 15, 2009 at 3:36 pm
jean-pierre says:
merci de ta visite . a bientôt . bonne soirée
On November 15, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Nadjibella says:
Voilà une manière de préparer le poulet qui me plait beaucoup et plus particulièrement la sauce à l’ail.
J’en prends note.
A bientôt.
On November 15, 2009 at 4:35 pm
Joumana says:
Merci de ta visite! J’adore l’ail et le poulet, ~a mon avis ils sont indissociables
On November 15, 2009 at 6:41 pm
spice says:
love the whole platter but specially like those roasted potatoes, onion & garlic…also like the idea of basting the chicken with garlic sauce…thanx for sharing the recipe
On November 15, 2009 at 10:39 pm
Peter says:
Absolutely gorgeous and comforting. I’m roasting chicken tonight and I’m already thinking of it.
On November 23, 2009 at 11:25 am
nihaty says:
Garlic is a plant very useful in türkiyede almost all the food we use a natural antibiotic and he is great in my taste.
On December 4, 2009 at 10:01 am
princess says:
looks very yummy!!!!!!!!!
On December 15, 2010 at 10:12 pm
domi says:
Quelques fois la simplicité est le garant de la qualité, bisous et bonne soirée
On October 5, 2011 at 9:41 am