This is another recipe from the wedding present cookbook I made for my friend Jessica, sent to me by Julia Wade.  A good roast chicken recipe like this is great because it’s delicious but actually pretty simple, and looks much fancier than it is.  And if you add some root vegetables nestled around it like we did, they become wonderfully infused with all the juices from the chicken, and make it a one-pot meal.  Thanks for sharing, Julia!

You might also like:

• Pork Chops Saltimbocca
• Swedish Meatballs

John’s Roasted Chicken
Adapted from Julia Wade

1 roasting chicken, gutted and thoroughly washed
1 onion, quartered
1 lemon, quartered
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 carrots
8 or so fingerling potatoes
12 or so Brussels sprouts
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Herbes de Provence (or other combination of herbs such as rosemary, thyme, parsley, sage, or lavender)
4 Tablespoons butter, melted

Peel carrots and cut into chunks. Halve potatoes and Brussels sprouts. Sprinkle with Herbes de Provence and 2 minced cloves of garlic. Toss with olive oil, and arrange vegetables around the edge of a roasting pan big enough to hold the chicken.

After washing chicken, pat dry with paper towels. Salt and pepper inside of chicken generously. Place quartered onion and lemon, along with remaining garlic inside of the chicken cavity. Tie legs together with butcher twine.

Coat outside of chicken with olive oil and rub thoroughly into the skin. Salt and pepper generously. Crush Herbs de Provence to release essential oils, and sprinkle on outside. Nestle chicken among the vegetables.

Roast at 425 degrees for 15 minutes.

Turn oven down to 375 degrees. After another 15 minutes, baste with butter. Baste again with chicken juice from pan every 20 minutes until chicken is done.

Chicken will be done when drumsticks jiggle, and feel ready to separate from the rest of the bird. When done, let bird sit for 10 minutes before carving.

To carve, use a sharp knife and separate wings and thigh from the body. Cut the joint only. Then slice breast and rest of bird. ENJOY!!

So I only joined this group three weeks ago, and I’ve already screwed up three times. First I missed an assignment — two weeks ago’s Julienne Darblay, a creamed leek and potato soup. The next week, I actually made the Veloute Agnes Sorel on time, but I obviously didn’t get it posted last Wednesday. And now this week, I’ve missed another assignment, the Bisque de Langoustines. Hopefully I’ll do better from here on out. I think I actually have a reasonable excuse this time — July has been pretty busy anyway, and last Wednesday Matt and I took a redeye to New York for my cousin’s wedding Saturday, then flew from NYC to Raleigh, NC on Sunday for another cousin’s wedding (which I was in) on Sunday night, and then back to California on Monday. So, not a lot of time for cooking this weekend!

Anyway, here’s my Veloute Agnes Sorel, a cream of chicken soup, a week late, as I continue to cook through some version of the Cordon Bleu cooking school curriculum along with the rest of the Whisk Wednesdays group. If you want the recipe, I highly recommend buying the book, Le Cordon Bleu at Home. But here’s the gist of it, also in pictures below: I made stock from chicken, carrots, onion, and a bouquet garni, and cooked some mushrooms in butter. I added egg yolks and cream to some of the stock to make it creamy, and then added chicken, mushrooms, and ham to the base. I wasn’t so sure how the ham would be, but it actually gave the soup a really nice, kind of smoky flavor, much more interesting than normal cream of chicken soup. I know this is only my second recipe from this cookbook, but so far I’m pretty impressed with the recipes, though everything sure does seem to require a bunch of dishes!