Chicken Marsala

Hello, blog followers!

I apologize in advance for the unusually delayed blog post.  I was out of town last weekend, enjoying a few days with good friends, canoeing, and spending hours in the sunshine (something you don't often get to do if you have a 9-5, Monday-Friday desk job).  My husband and I traveled to the quaint little town of Red Wing, Minnesota yesterday for his cousin's wedding.  It was held in an amazing, round barn and the entire event was so beautiful and filled with emotion.  Everyone had a wonderful time.  I love weddings!  And we danced our little butts off.

After a couple of busy work weeks and fun-filled weekends, I'm tired today.  We got back from Red Wing this morning and J spent his whole day off work trying to sell his Dad's car and then fixing his cousin's.  I went to the gym for a good workout, had a mini-Arrested Development Marathon, and decided I wanted to try a new recipe.  I am currently enjoying a full tummy, a nice glass of white wine, and gearing up for the VMAs.  They're always ridiculous but fun to watch.  And Lady Gaga's performing!  Eeee!  And a Britney Spears tribute!  Eeee!

I made Chicken Marsala this afternoon from the super-useful America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. Chicken Marsala is something my Mom made often when I was younger but I haven't had it in years.  I figured I was due.  Interestingly, many of the steps are very similar to the Chicken Piccata I made last week and I'm getting the hang of browning chicken and making buttery pan sauces.  An important skill!

THE MISSION: Chicken Marsala

THE INGREDIENTS: 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, 3 tablespoons vegetable oil, 3 ounces pancetta or bacon chopped fine, 8 ounces white button mushrooms sliced thin, 1 minced garlic clove, 1 teaspoon tomato paste, 1.5 cups sweet Marsala, 1.5 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, 3 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter cut into 3 pieces, 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley.

I ended up using bacon instead of pancetta because I had some in the fridge and didn't want to purchase more food.  It tasted great with the bacon but I'd like to try the pancetta in the future.

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 200 degrees.  Spread the flour in a shallow dish.  Pound the thicker ends of the breasts as needed.  

Just as with the Chicken Piccata, the breasts should be pounded really thin, into cutlets.  That way, they cook through on the stovetop in just a few minutes.  You don't want browned chicken that's raw inside.  If they cutlets aren't thin enough, that's what you'll get.

Pat dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper.  Dredge through the flour to coat and shake off any excess.  

Patting the chicken dry ensures that you'll get a nice even brown on both sides.  Moist chicken breasts are difficult to brown without burning.  And if I've learned one thing from Rachael Ray, it's that you must season every layer when dredging and pan frying chicken.  For this recipe, that means seasoning both the chicken breasts and flour.  If we were to bread the chicken, we'd want to make sure that we seasoned the chicken, flour, egg mixture, and bread crumbs.  Treat every layer individually.

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking.  Add the chicken and cook until light golden brown on both sides, about 10 minutes.  

Lovely.

Transfer chicken to a plate and keep warm in the oven.  Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil to the skillet and return to medium-high heat until shimmering.  Add the pancetta/bacon and mushrooms.  Cook until pancetta/bacon is crisp and the mushrooms are brown, about 10 minutes.  

Stir in the garlic and tomato paste.  Cook until the tomato paste begins to brown, about 1 minute.  Stir in the Marsala, scraping up any browned bits and simmer until reduced and slightly syrupy, about 8 minutes.

Okay, can we just talk about the smell here for a second?  I was hungry when I started cooking the Chicken Marsala, but when the sauce was simmering away it had the most amazing smell and...well...it was a very long 8 minutes waiting for the sauce to get 'syrupy.'  I hope heaven smells like food.  :)

Stir in the lemon juice and any accumulated chicken juice.  Turn the heat low and whisk in the butter, one piece at a time. 

Whisking in the butter.

How it looked when all 3 pieces had been whisked in.

Off the heat, stir in the parsley and season with salt and pepper to taste.  Spoon the sauce over the chicken before serving.  


MISSION COMPLETE: 

As you can see, I like a lot of mushrooms and bacon on my chicken.

DEBRIEFING: If you've made Chicken Marsala before, you probably noticed that this recipe didn't call for any chicken stock.  Chicken stock is usually used to temper Marsala but for this version we used sweet Marsala.  It didn't require any tempering and therefore didn't require chicken stock.  If you only have regular Marsala in your cupboard, throw in a splash or two of chicken stock when you add the Marsala to the pan.

This recipe was another winner.  This cookbook really is the best.  And I love how they dumb it down so cooking novices like me can make it appear to the rest of the world that they can actually cook!  My only regret is that I didn't make mashed potatoes to go with the chicken.  I don't think that's common but the sauce was a perfect gravy for mashed potatoes.  I did have plenty of leftovers, so maybe I'll whip up some potatoes to have with it for dinner tomorrow!

Here's to another week!  We're looking so forward to Labor Day festivities next weekend.  And that means a three-day weekend!  Niiiiiice.

Cheers!
Rachel

Chicken Piccata

I wasn't originally intending on making anything special for dinner tonight.  My plan was to go for a nice long run.  But I had two things working against me.  1) I junked up my knee.  My Dad's side is notorious for having knee problems and that seems to be something I've inherited.  (Oh goodie!)  I've been running more than usual as of late and have been making sure to stretch really well before and after.  But my knees have been bothering me, especially the left one.  It was even uncomfortable to sit at work today.  I've been nursing Advil and laying off the exercise the last couple of days.  I hope to be back to normal soon.  2) Pouring rain and lightening.

I had dry cleaning to pick up anyway and J is working late to bring home that bacon, so why not make a nice dinner for us?  Am I just the best wife ever or what?  + I wanted to use the cookbook my parents got me for my birthday.

Chicken Piccata it is!

THE MISSION: America's Test Kitchen's Chicken Piccata

THE INGREDIENTS: 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, 8 thin chicken breast cutlets (4 ounces each), 4 tablespoons vegetable oil, 1 minced shallot, 1 minced garlic clove, 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth, 1/2 large lemon sliced into 1/4-inch thick half-moons, 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (from 1.5 lemons), 2 tablespoons rinsed capers, 3 tablespoons of chilled and unsalted butter cut into 3 pieces, 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley.

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 200 degrees.  Spread the flour in a shallow dish.  Pat the cutlets dry with a paper towel, then season with S&P.  Dredge through the flour to coat and shake off any excess.  


A note about chicken cutlets.  Cutlets are thin slices of chicken breast.  Some stores will sell them, but not all.  An easy solution is to buy normal chicken breast and slice them in half through the middle.  Then cover the cut up chicken with plastic wrap and pound it to the desired thickness.

Bam, bam, thank you ma'am.  Below is a normal chicken breast in the front and the correct thickness of a cutlet in the back.  

The beauty of a chicken cutlet is that it cooks completely through in just a couple of minutes.  And by quickly frying it up on the stovetop, it holds in all of its juices.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking.  Add half the cutlets and cook until light golden brown on both sides, about 4 minutes.  Transfer to a plate and keep warm in the oven.  Repeat with the remaining oil and cutlets.  

I've cooked chicken this way on the stovetop many, many times but today was the first time I've done it correctly.  I was reading through this cookbook and found out there are actually 3 types of oil when it comes to cooking things on your range: cold, shimmering, and smoking.  You want your oil just smoking (literally, smoke coming off the oil) over medium-high heat before you add the chicken cutlets.  Otherwise, your chicken in sitting in cold oil, doing nothing but soaking it up and getting soggy.  With the oil at an appropriate temperature, the chicken is crispy and cooks through quickly and thoroughly - and it isn't the slightest bit oily.  And you know what?  This was the first time I've ever fried the chicken in oil on the range and didn't think that it was greasy.  I've always added the meat before the oil was hot enough.  It does take time to heat up - especially on our electric range - but it's totally worth it.  Be patient.    

Add the shallot and garlic to the oil left in the skillet and cook over medium heat until softened, about 2 minutes.  Stir in the broth and lemon slices, scraping up any brown bits, and simmer until reduced and slightly syrupy, about 8 minutes.  

I love the little half-moon shapes of the lemons.  They remind me of Japanese fans.  

Stir in the lemon juice, capers, and any accumulated chicken juice.  Turn the heat to low and whisk in the butter, one piece at a time. 

 

Off the heat, stir in the parsley and season with S&P to taste.  

Can't you see all the buttery goodness?  

Spoon the sauce over the chicken before serving.  

MISSION COMPLETE: 

As you can see, I did up some roasted potatoes to have with the chicken, too.  Very easy: cut up some potatoes, mix with S&P and a couple tablespoons of good olive oil and roast at 450 degrees for 30 or 45 minutes (depending on how much potato you use).  I also threw in some of that fresh parsley, too.  My favorite is adding rosemary to roasted potatoes.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy.  

DEBRIEFING: Boy, was this tasty.  There was a little blurb in the cookbook by the authors about going through many versions, trying to get the lemon taste to come through.  And it really did.  The mixture of cooking the lemon slices with the chicken broth and then adding fresh squeezed lemon juice gave every bite the perfect lemon taste.  Not too overpowering and not too faint.  

I also decided that I don't like capers.  The flavoring in the sauce was good but I took a bite of one of the capers and it alone is no good.  It has a very strong, peculiar flavor.  

Bottom line: try this recipe.  And splurge when you do it.  Serve it over pasta.  Yeeeaaaahhhh boy!  

Top Chef Just Desserts starts next week!  Eeeeeee!  

Tomorrow's only Wednesday?  Are you serious?!  

Our company picnic is Thursday so another post is on its way, once I decide what I'm making.  

Rain, rain go away.  

Cheers!

Rachel  

Roasted Tomatoes Stuffed with Fresh Mozzarella and Basil

Today's my birthday!  I am officially a quarter-century.  Birthdays are such a funny thing, getting to celebrate simply surviving another year.  I can understand having a party if you reach 100 or something, but 25?  It just goes to show that I'm competent enough not to get hit by a train or blow myself up with fireworks or something.  But birthdays are fun nonetheless.  My husband came home last night and baked me a birthday cake!  Complete with hand piped cherry blossoms (they're my favorite).

Between the two of us, that number 2 will get re-used at least 8 times over the next four years.  And I'm sure I'll see that 5 in another ten.

So what am I doing on this joyous occasion?  Well, I got up and went for a nice long run and then went to Starbucks to read Cutting For Stone where I enjoyed an oh-so-perfect Venti Coconut Iced Coffee with...wait for it...WHOLE MILK!  Oh yeah, I'm usually a skim milk kinda' girl but I thought: Hey, it's your birthday!

It was heaven.

I came back and enjoyed a nice bubble bath to de-stress and here I am writing a blog post to you lovely people.

What are we doing today?  Roasted Tomatoes Stuffed with Fresh Mozzarella and Basil.   I found this easy-peasy recipe in last Sunday's New York Times.  I wanted to make it in honor of my best friend and little Italian ragazza.  If she could eat raviolis and a caprese salad every day of the week, she would.  And...almost does.  We used to joke that she smelled like garlic bread.  I love her and wish she was here in MN to enjoy this yummy dish with me.  Miss you, Lara.

On the same night that I made this, I also tried a dish I found on another food blog called Pasta with Whiskey, Wine, and Mushrooms.  It was a complete and total disaster.  A true failure.  But unlike the matzo ball soup, this wasn't my fault!  I followed the recipe exactly and it was disgusting.

Picture it (ala' Sophia on the Golden Girls): Minneapolis, August 2011.  A young woman, slaving over a hot stove for a good hour.  Cutting, slicing, chopping, measuring, stirring, roasting.  When the meal is complete, she sits down with her husband at the dinner table.  And neither of them can even take one bite of the food because it smells like straight whiskey.

Yes, I kid you not.  I threw out so much freaking food, I was miserable.  It literally tasted and smelled like I had taken pasta, chicken, and mushrooms and had doused them in a gallon of Jack Daniels, let them stew in it for an hour, and then drank it all down.  The smell was so strong it was burning the inside of my nose.  It was awful.

I'm thinking that the blogger mistyped some of the ingredient measures.  I won't waste your time or mine typing out the recipe and uploading the images.  It makes me a little sick in my stomach even now thinking about it.

On to better things!

THE MISSION: Roasted Tomatoes Stuffed with Fresh Mozzarella and Basil

That's not the image from the newspaper.  Actually, there was no image accompanying the recipe so I just Googled it and this is what I found.  I also don't really like when recipes says 'fresh' in the title.  Compared to...?  Using rotten moldy ingredients?  It's something you would have lost points on in high school English class for trying to up your word count.  But I get where they're going.  

THE INGREDIENTS: 4 large tomatoes, 8 ounces fresh chopped mozzarella, 1 cup bread crumbs, 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil + a little more to garnish, 4 tablespoons olive oil, S&P.  

I wasn't able to find 4 large tomatoes.  The picture is misleading as everything else is actually pretty small to begin with, there's nothing to get a relative size.  So I used 6 medium-ish tomatoes and kept the rest of the ingredient measures the same.

Cut 1/4-inch slice from the top of the tomatoes and scoop out the insides.  

I scooped out all 6 tomatoes into a bowl and then separated the meaty pulp from all the excess juice and seeds.  You don't want all that, you just want the fleshy parts from inside the tomatoes.

Chop pulp and mix with the mozzarella, basil, bread crumbs, 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and season with S&P.  

Nothing smells better than fresh basil.  It's so distinct, there's really nothing like it.

Stuff the tomatoes, replacing the reserved slices.  Drizzle with 2 more tablespoons of olive oil.  

I did, in fact, replace those reserved slices, but there was nothing to see in that picture.  Here's what the little guys look like stuffed to glorious capacity.

Roast in a greased roasting pan at 450 degrees for 30 minutes.  Garnish with more chopped basil.  


MISSION COMPLETE:

DEBRIEFING: How can something with so few ingredients taste so good?


One thing I think I'd do a little bit differently next time is toasting up the bread crumbs before stuffing the tomatoes.  I used Japanese Panko breadcrumbs - because they're hardy and super crunchy.  I'd suggest throwing the bread crumbs in a pan with a little butter and toasting them on the stove.  I just felt like they could have been a little bit crunchier.


I also made the mistake of not having a loaf of French bread or a focaccia or something in the house to put the roasted tomato and all of its goodies on.  Next time I'll get a fresh baguette, cut it into 1-inch slices, rub some garlic into it, brush it with olive oil, and throw it under the broiler for a few minutes.  It would be perfect to kind of dunk into the roasted tomato or scoop some of the tomato, mozzarella, basil, and bread crumb mixture onto and eat it that way.


Something I'm particularly enjoying about this blog is that I'm eating new things.  If you know me, I'm really picky.  J's uncle put it a good way: a particular palette.  But I'm trying to be more adventurous.  Like making that beef stew a few weeks ago?  Yeah, I don't like steak and I don't like stew.   Anyway, I hate tomatoes.  I will never eat a tomato unless it's in pasta sauce, pizza sauce, or BBQ sauce.  They're mushy and slimy and wet and gross.  So for me to purchase tomatoes and eat them - as is - as the star of a dish is a big deal.  And you know what?  It was good.  But still don't expect me to eat a turkey sandwich with tomatoes on it.  Ick.  Soggy tomato bread.

My Mom and Dad sent me the best birthday gift ever.  Thanks family!

It's this massive, weighty thing, binder-style filled with something like 1200 recipes, plus all the kitchen know-how you'd ever need.  The dork in me spent hours last night reading through it, using sticky flags to mark recipes that I want to try.  Nerd alert!

 I'd get started today but J and I are going out to dinner for my birthday.  Excited!  We're going to a restaurant I've wanted to go to for ages.  We had reservations in January sometime but we got one of our many Minnesota snowstorms and the restaurant had to close.  So, needless to say, I think I've been pretty patient with this one.

Oh, yeah, and before I forget.

Reason #14 why my workplace is better than yours:

This was my lunch yesterday.  In our cafeteria.  Thai Flank Stead Salad with a Sesame-Ginger Vinaigrette.  It had Chinese cabbage, little carrot ribbons, edamame, sugar peas, red bell pepper, all kinds of goodness.  This is some high-class cafeteria food if I've ever seen it.  And it was made for me piece by piece by a little Frenchman in full chef regalia.  Jean Luc, or something like that.  He even carved the steak right in front of me.  Lol.

Cafeteria food will never be the same.  Did I mention we have on-site sushi chefs?  It's like working for Google or something.  Except we have better health insurance :)

Off to read.  Or see Glee 3-D.  Haven't decided yet.  (Commence the laughter about how I like Glee.)

Cheers to another great year!
Rachel



 

Bangers & Mash

J and I went to one of our favorite places on Friday night - Cooper in St. Louis Park - because I had a serious craving for their bangers and mash.  It's just awesome and it's what I get every time.  So we drive out there, sit down, open the menu, and...no bangers and mash on the menu.  I was all like, 'WTF?!'

I asked the waiter and he gave me that crap about changing the menu for the summer.  And guess what else they had taken off for the summer?  CARROT CAKE.  At this point I was pretty much like F-this.  I understand bringing in different items for summer for things that are in season in the summer like strawberries.  But I'm thinking that sausages and potatoes and carrots are pretty much in season all year round (or at least imported from some place where they're in season).

We ended up staying and had a nice time.  We both had fish and chips - mine with cod, J's with walleye.  He always has to have the one that's more expensive.  If you ask me, fish and chips should be made with cod.

But, alas, I left longing for bangers and mash.  So yesterday I looked up a recipe online - of which there are thousands of different versions - and decided to give it a shot.  I also learned another interesting thing on my bangers and mash quest.  The term mash I'm sure we all understand: mashed potatoes = mash.  But why is a sausage called a 'banger?'  It turns out, when you cook a sausage on too high of heat, it tends to burst, releasing juices.  And it makes a pop or bang sound.  Hence sausage = banger.  

You can thank me when you're on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and this little tid-bit of trivia is the million-dollar question.  

THE MISSION: English-style Bangers & Mash

Traditional bangers and mash is served with mashy peas, but I think peas are gross and, hence, decided not to include them in my version.

THE INGREDIENTS: 6-8 pork sausages (preferably Cumberland sausage), 4 tablespoons vegetable oil, 2 pounds peeled and quartered potatoes, 6 tablespoons milk, 1 stick + 2 tablespoons butter, S&P, 2 medium onions thinly sliced, 1 teaspoon sugar, 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar, 1 pint beef stock, 4 teaspoons corn starch, 4 teaspoons cold water.

A couple of notes:  
1) I went to three different stores, including a deli, and no one had any idea what I was talking about when I asked for Cumberland sausage.  This must be some English thing.  So I tried finding the typical little pork sausages that they give you when you order bangers and mash to no avail.  It was either buy bratwurst, Italian sausage, or Polish sausage.  I ended up choosing Polish sausage but think I would get regular bratwurst next time.  The Polish sausage was too salty for this.

2) Four teaspoons of corn starch will be nowhere near enough corn starch for a thick gravy.  Use at least 6 teaspoons and that means use 6 teaspoons of cold water as well.

3) This recipe is all over the place.  I mean the way it's written.  So bear with me here.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the vegetable oil in a large frying pan on medium heat and add the sausages.  Fry until the sausages are golden brown and firm, turning occasionally - about 20 minutes.  

We have a sweet griddle pan that we usually use for pancakes or burgers and it worked really well for frying the sausages.  With the heat on medium the sausages popped and shot hot oil everywhere so I kicked the heat down to medium-low and let them cook through while I made the mashed potatoes and gravy, slightly more than 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, start the mashed potatoes by boiling the potatoes in lightly salted water until soft - 15 to 20 minutes.  Drain, and keep warm until ready to mash.  


While the potatoes are cooking, make the gravy.  Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil with 2 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan over low heat.  Add the onion and cover with lid.  Cook slowly for approximately 10 minutes or until the onions are soft and translucent.  

Add the sugar and balsamic vinegar to the onions and stir well.  Replace lid and continue to cook for another 5 minutes.  Add the stock and boil gently, uncovered, for 5 minutes.  


In a heat-proof bowl, mix the corn starch and cold water together until it forms a thin paste.  Pour a little of the hot gravy into the bowl with the corn starch paste and mix thoroughly.  Pour the starch mixture back into the gravy, raise the heat to high, and boil for 10 minutes or until the gravy is slightly thickened.  

Finish the mash by placing the stick of butter and milk in the pot used to boil the potatoes, return to low heat and warm gently until the butter has melted.  Add the potatoes and mash using a fork or masher.  

Whip the potatoes and season with S&P.  

In the picture above you'll notice that my mashed potatoes are in a casserole dish.  Well, that's because I finished the potatoes waaaaaayyyyyy before the gravy was done.  The sausages ended up in a little casserole dish, too.  And both ended up in a 215-degree oven to stay warm while the gravy was thickening up.  I think the recipe is written in the wrong order.  It goes sausages, potatoes, gravy when in fact it should go gravy, sausages, potatoes.  I'm really working on the timing aspect of cooking.  It's difficult.

MISSION COMPLETE: 

DEBRIEFING: As I mentioned above, I really would have liked to find an appropriate sausage for this recipe.  If I can't, next time I make it I'll use brats instead of the Polish sausage.  They were just too salty.

The potatoes were great but my gravy wasn't as thick as I would have liked it to be.  That's why I strongly recommend adding more corn starch than the recipe originally calls for.  Or a trick that my Mom uses is to buy one of those ready-to-go McCormick packets of gravy.  Some of the recipes I scanned suggested doing that.

For the gravy, too, I liked the flavor the onions gave it but I think I would have liked it better to strain the onions out after cooking.  That way the gravy would have kept the flavor but you wouldn't be chomping on onions in every bite.  I'll probably do that next time.

My night last night was very international: Bangers and Mash from England.  'Shall We Dance?' from Japan.  Wine from Germany.  I love 'Shall We Dance?'  We watched it every year in Japanese class 7th through 12th grade.  I've been missing Japan.  I'd like to go back soon and share the experience with my husband who has never been there.

Yesterday was the 66th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bombs that ended WWII.  Thoughts are in Hiroshima and Nagasaki today.  A couple of photos I took while I was in Hiroshima last summer:

To a nuclear weapon-free world.

Rachel
 

Old-Fashioned Chicken in a Pot

Chicken.  It's my favorite.  I can't ever get enough of it.  Pork and beef I can easily do without, but chicken?  Nope.  

Another one of those holy grail-type recipes is fried chicken, and I am bound and determined to make that one day.  My grandmother makes the best in the entire world.  My mother fought with it for years.  And pounds and pounds of undercooked and/or burnt chicken later (and after a really, really bad burn on her hand and arm) she realized: You know what?  It's just not worth it.

But I must!  It's just one of those things.  If you can make fried chicken from scratch, in your own home, and without a real deep-fryer, then you can pretty much make anything.  I'd really have to mentally prepare for it.  The oil has to be really hot and the thought of trying to put a piece of chicken in the pot and scalding my arm scares me.  Just laying it out there.  It's scary.  Making fried chicken is scary.

But I'll get there.

I began with mentioning chicken because that's what I made today.  Last weekend my wonderful mother-in-law gave me Cook's Illustrated's American Classics.  It's this great book/magazine filled with recipes my grandmother used to make me: chicken-fried steak, ribs, fried fish, you name it.  Those good-ole' comfort foods.  It's also unique in that it provides a lot of the basic cooking know-how.  For example, I didn't know that if you don't pat meat completely dry before putting it in the pan that it won't brown correctly.  Or that browning is exactly what boosts flavor in meat.  Or that not letting meat sit for at least five minutes after you remove it from the oven or stovetop will make it dry and tough.  The book even goes into how to correctly clean and cut different types of vegetables and makes recommendations about especially good ingredients and cooking products.  It's great.  My husband likes it because it talks about all the science in cooking.  It's a winner winner, chicken dinner.  Funny!  That's what we had tonight.

THE MISSION: Old-Fashioned Chicken in a Pot

THE INGREDIENTS: 1 whole chicken (4.5 - 5 pounds) trimmed of excess fat, S&P, 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, 1 onion peeled and halved with the root end left intact, 1 celery rib halved crosswise, 1 pound carrots peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces, 6 medium garlic cloves minced, 1 cup dry white wine, 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth, 1.5 pounds small red potatoes quartered, 2 tablespoons butter, 1 tablespoon minced fresh chives.    

I skipped the celery and here's why: I don't eat celery unless it's part of a dish.  And I wasn't going to buy a gigantic package of celery to use 1 piece of it.  Believe me, the dish wasn't missing a piece of celery.  The recipe has you throw it out after cooking anyway!  I also couldn't find a chicken as big as the recipe called for.  The one pictured above was just under 4 pounds and the cooking time was the same.  Use what you can find.

The beginning of the recipe notes that you'll need at least a 6-quart Dutch oven with a tight fitting lid and kitchen twine to make this meal.  Luckily, I found a whole chicken that had already been tied off by the butcher, so I didn't need to pick up any kitchen twine.  I have a feeling most whole chickens are already tied off, and the kitchen twine didn't really get in the way of flavoring the chicken before cooking it.

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees.  Pat chicken dry with paper towels.  Using fingers, loosen skin from breasts and legs of chicken.  Rub 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper all over the chicken and underneath skin.  Tuck wings behind back and tie legs together with kitchen twine.  

Behold.  That's my hand under the chicken's skin.  I'm not embarrassed to admit that this is my very first time handling a whole chicken, let alone sticking my hand under that poor (delicious) animal's skin.  I just kind of did it and tried not to think about the cute little gal walking around the hen house all happy-go-lucky.  Dealing with animal meat is just a weird experience.  My husband and I have a friend who skinned a whole lamb once.  Craziness.

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat until just smoking.  Add chicken, breast side up, and cook until lightly browned, 3 to 4 minutes.  

Here's why this cookbook is so great.  It explains why exactly you're just browning one side of the chicken for 4 minutes.  And it's really interesting (or at least I think it is) so I'm going to share it with you.  Dark meat (what's on the underside of the chicken - the side that's getting browned in the picture above) takes longer to cook through than the delicate white meats.  By browning it, you're getting the cooking process started early on that one side.  If you didn't do this step, by the time the dark meat was cooked through and tender, the white meat would be tough and completely dried out.  As you'll see from the rest of the recipe in just a second here, this chicken will eventually end up in the oven getting steamed away by a glorious combination of chicken stock, wine, and vegetable aromatics (the book's word, not mine).  Both the white and dark meat end up tender and delicious.  So now you know.  If you're going to roast or steam a whole chicken, brown the dark meat side for a few minutes first.

Transfer chicken to a plate.  Add remaining oil, onion, celery, and carrots to empty Dutch oven and cook until browned, about 5 minutes.  Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  

Add wine and broth and bring to a boil.  Arrange chicken, breast side up, on top of vegetables.  Season potatoes with S&P and arrange around chicken.  

Here's another interesting piece of advice.  By placing the chicken on top of all of the vegetables, you prevent it from overcooking.  The vegetables keep the chicken away from the very hot bottom of the pan while letting it cook through from the steam of the liquids in the Dutch oven.  The vegetables also flavor the chicken while it's cooking.

Isn't this cooking stuff interesting?!

Transfer Dutch oven to oven and cook, covered, until thigh meat registers 170 to 175 degrees on instant-read thermometer, 50 to 70 minutes.  Remove Dutch oven from oven and transfer to wire rack.  Remove lid and tent Dutch oven loosely with foil; let rest 20 minutes.  

That's what it looked like when the foil came off.  She was all like: Eat me please.  I'm delicious.

Carefully transfer chicken to carving board.  Using slotted spoon, transfer vegetables to serving platter, discarding the onion and celery.  

 
Here's one thing I didn't get.  Onions are best when they're roasted.  I get that the recipe has you add one to the pot to add to the overall flavor of the chicken and vegetables.  But I think it would have been better to have some of the roasted onion in the vegetable mixture.

Let sit for 5 minutes, then strain and skim sauce (about 2 cups; if less, supplement with chicken broth).  Whisk butter and chives into sauce and season with S&P to taste.  

Carve chicken and serve, passing sauce at table.  

MISSION COMPLETE: 

DEBRIEFING: The chicken was the most tender chicken I've ever had.  I only had the white meat, but my husband said the dark meat was just as tender.  He actually said it was the best chicken he's ever had.  And if you don't know him, he's really not the humoring type.  It made my day.  And this is why I follow recipes so closely!  Everything (usually) pans out!

The sauce was buttery, like heaven.  It wasn't thick like a gravy, just a light buttery sauce that we poured over the chicken meat and all of the vegetables.

It was my first time handling a whole chicken and it was my husband's first time carving a whole chicken.  That-there Google and YouTube sure come in handy.  You can find anything and everything on there.  All he did was put 'carving a whole chicken' into the query field and there popped up hundreds of videos that walk you through step-by-step.  He did a really good job, too.

Another smashing success that only required 1 pot to make.  Splendid.  

The meal ended with this:

Carrot cake.  My favorite.

Tomorrow's Monday.  Back to the grind.

Thanks for reading.

Cheers,
Rachel