Take care when roasting whole chicken
- Scott Daniels: We Ate Well and Cheaply
- June 24, 2023
- 366
There are a few things that are tossed around as being real tests of a cook’s ability, the sort of things young chefs are expected to know early in their careers.
You should know how to truss and roast a chicken perfectly. You should be able to make a French rolled omelette. Making stocks should be second nature. Your knife cuts should be neat and even.
Presented with a whole fish, you should be able to get it ready to cook without an end product that looks like a blind cat’s victim. These are fairly basic things but are not easy to get right without practice.
I usually prefer to roast a chicken without any stuffing, as a plain roast chicken can stand on its own with any dish out there when done well. But some time ago, I was making a chicken stuffed with potatoes and olives pretty much every week for what seemed like years, so often that I grew royally tired of it and stopped.
There was a final evening, after eating this chicken every week for months, when it just didn’t seem so delicious anymore. I must heave really gotten my fill of it because I also stopped remembering how to make it.
It was presented as a “Roman” dish without much to support this idea by a television cook whose name I also have forgotten. My brain was very determined that I should never make that stupid chicken again and cut all ties with any memory which might revive the idea.
I recently ran across a slip of paper stuck in a cookbook, which had the details recorded, so I can be tempted to pick it up and try again. In this case, I am saved by my family, who took a quick look at the recipe and decided it’s a nope.
This dish is a unique combination of flavors and may not be for everyone, though you shouldn’t let the anchovies scare you off. Once the chicken is done, it is simply cut into quarters rather than fussing with scooping out the stuffing and carving the bird.
Take care when roasting any whole chicken. If you’ve tied it up tightly enough, it shouldn’t need a rack underneath. Keep an eye on it the last 20 minutes or so of cooking to see that it is browning evenly. If not, turn the pan a couple of times while roasting.
As always, wash your hands and all preparation surfaces carefully after handling raw chicken and before touching anything else.
ROASTED CHICKEN WITH POTATOES AND OLIVES
1 whole small chicken
6 new red potatoes, boiled until almost tender
1/4 cup chopped green olives
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, minced
1 tablespoon chopped flat leaf parsley
3 anchovy filets, mashed
1 tablespoon capers
1/4 cup dry white wine
olive oil
salt and pepper
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
Salt and pepper the chicken inside and out. Cut the potatoes into halves when cool. Lightly mix together the potatoes, olives, garlic, rosemary, parsley, anchovies, white wine and capers in a bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and add pepper. Taste before adding any more salt as the anchovies may be enough. Stuff this mixture into the cavity of the chicken lightly, then tie up the legs with butcher’s twine.
Place the chicken in a greased roasting pan and roast for about 70 minutes, until the juices run clear and an internal temperature of 165 degrees is reached. Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes, then cut into quarters and serve.