Foodstuff: Roasted chicken in two parts

The Spaghetti Assassin recently attended a chicken harvesting workshop at ACES Rock Bottom Ranch. For the price of the $100 ticket, the class of just six attendees received incredibly detailed personal instruction from ACES’ staff: Rock Bottom Ranch Livestock Manager Cameron MacKenzie and Rock Bottom Ranch Director John Middleton. Step by step, everyone learned what happens to our food before it lands on our plates. In addition to hands-on instruction, each participant was left with a whole chicken, approximately five pounds each, which is where the fun began in the kitchen.

Family was visiting from out of town a few days later, so we decided to host a celebratory feast of roast chicken and Farm Runners CSA vegetables. This recipe is courtesy of domestic goddess Ina Garten, who, if you’re anything like me, you probably already know debuted this recipe in her first cookbook. It’s a favorite of her husband Jeffrey, naturally.

Ina Garten’s perfect roast chicken

Serves 4

• 1 whole (5- to 6-pound) roasting chicken
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 large bunch fresh thyme
• 1 lemon, halved
• 1 head garlic, cut in half crosswise
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 Spanish onion, thickly sliced
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Remove chicken giblets. Rinse chicken inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pinfeathers, and pat outside dry. Place the chicken in a roasting pan just large enough to hold it.

Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the thyme, both lemon halves and all the garlic. Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper.

Tie the legs together with kitchen string, and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken. Scatter the onion slices around the chicken (see Cook’s Notes if you would like to also roast potatoes and carrots with the chicken).*

Roast the chicken for one and a half hours** or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Remove to a platter, and cover with aluminum foil while you prepare the gravy.

Remove all the fat from the bottom of the roasting pan, reserving two tablespoons in a small cup. Add the chicken stock to the pan, and cook on high heat for about five minutes, until reduced, scraping the bottom of the pan.

Combine the reserved chicken fat with the flour, and add to the pan. Boil for a few minutes to cook the flour.*** Strain the gravy into a small saucepan, and season it to taste. Keep it warm over a very low flame while you carve the chicken.

Slice the chicken onto a platter, and serve immediately with the warm gravy.

Cook’s notes

*If you want to roast vegetables with the chicken, add eight whole new red potatoes (We used a mix of red and gold baby potatoes) and four carrots, cut diagonally into quarters, to the onions. Place the chicken on top of the vegetables for roasting.

**We roasted our chicken for slightly longer than suggested, one hour and 40 minutes, and the chicken was perfect, but the vegetables could have used more time. We might try adding a bit of chicken broth to the roasting pan next time to help things along with the potatoes and carrots.

***I had two tablespoons of heavy cream left over from another recipe, which I added to the gravy, yielding delicious results.

This chicken had perfect texture and moisture, and there was plenty left over for homemade chicken stock and chicken soup, which we’ll talk about in my next column. Stay tuned!

Katherine Roberts is a mid-Valley based writer and marketing professional who, as a meat eater, is a firm believer that we should all understand and appreciate where our food comes from. She can be reached via her marketing and communications firm, Carington Creative, at katherine@caringtoncreative.com.