TUSCAN ROAST CHICKEN
Hey there and welcome to No Recipe Required.
Iím Dave and tonight Iím going to do a spin on roast chicken for you.
This is what I like to call my Tuscan Roast Chicken.
Itís flavored with rosemary & lemon.
The twist on it is Iím going to show you how to butterfly the chicken which is essentially
taking the backbone out of the chicken so it opens up like a book.
The advantage is it cooks super, super fast this way and obviously it absolutely tastes
delicious.
Letís go ahead and get started.
Okay, so letís go ahead and get started making our Tuscan Roast Chicken.
Now what Iím going to do is actually I want to show you how to butterfly the chicken.
Now you donít have to do any recipe frankly with a butterflied chicken.
You can always roast it whole.
But butterflying gives it a different presentation, they cook a little faster and it can be a
little easier.
So the implements that you are going to want to need.
Essentially you are going to flip the chicken over.
This is the backbone right.
Breast side backbone implements: kind of use your biggest heaviest knife and you may have
to resort to a pair of kitchen shears.
And essentially I just kind of go right through the ribcage there and you do kind of have
to give it a few whacks to get through there.
You know the spine, like I said, kind of runs right down the edge and if you kind of dig
down with the knife youíll break through that ribcage.
You want to do it on both sides.
And itís a pretty low chance youíre actually going to go all the way through the bird if
you cut like that.
Eventually though thatís exactly what you are looking to do.
You want to get down there as well, down here as well and you know, if you got any little
snippets, this is kind of where the kitchen shears come in to play and eventually you
just want to rip that back right out.
This is great for soup stock if you want to do that.
And then once youíve got that backbone out, your bird just kind of opens up nice and neat
like that.
If you need to you can come back and kind of trim some of these extra rib pieces if
they are sticking out and you want to, but really, you donít have to.
Okay so weíve got our chicken butterflied for our roasted Tuscan chicken.
You donít have to use a butterflied chicken.
You can do this with a whole chicken but I think the butterfly makes it look kind of
cool.
Iím going to take it seasoned, both sides with salt and pepper, put it in my pan.
Now as you can see my pan is almost too small, maybe, maybe too small, Iím sure Iíll get
some people saying definitely too small.
You donít want to crush it up too much.
This is actually perfect for the grill.
Iím actually going to maybe pull my chicken legs out a little bit because the ends will
roast just fine with the air.
This is perfect for the grill but itís dark outside and I want to be able to show you
what Iím doing.
So weíre going to do it inside.
You can actually do it this way.
If you have a bigger roasting pan thatís great.
No problem.
Skin side down.
Iím going to let it go for about six, seven minutes.
Get nice and crispy and browned on that side.
Then weíre going to flip it over put it into a 390 degree oven
Okay, after six or seven minutes Iím going to test our chicken just by kind of lifting
it up and it should come pretty easily.
Iíve got a couple of pieces that are kind of sticking but itís not really too bad and
those pieces are kind of up around the edge so just try and loosen them up a little bit.
If the entire thing is sticking then chances are it hasnít cooked enough and hasnít browned,
because it needs to really get down to that golden brown stage before it releases from
the bottom of the pan.
So thatís the first thing to do if it ever sticks for youÖ.is just wait.
Turn the heat down, let it go for another five or six minutes and if it gets nice and
brown like that youíll be good to go.
To our chicken now, as we get ready to put it in the oven Iím going to put a few sprigs
of rosemary and this is going to give it that flavor, you know, that Tuscan beautiful flavor.
Iím just going to kind of lay them kind of out and about and then Iím going to throw
a lemon that Iíve cut up into quarters in and around there as well.
I want to kind of tuck it down so it doesnít sit on that nice crispy skin that we just
made because if you get water, or lemon juice in this case, on that skin itís going to
kind of steam and make it not so crisp.
So letís stick this in the oven.
Itís probably going to take about 45 minutes or so because itís butterflied.
You want to bring, you know, the internal temperature of the thigh meat and the thickest
part of the breast to about 160.
Okay, so I just pulled our Tuscan chicken out of the oven.
I was using a meat thermometer.
I let it get up to like 150 or so or 155.
Carry over temperature is going to bring it to 160 and that is going to be absolutely
perfect.
If you want to crisp up the skin a little more you can throw it under the super hot
broiler for just three or four minutes that will help brown the skin if it didnít quite
get to where you want.
Lift it up gingerly and youíre done.
Letís go ahead and make a sauce.
Okay, so I just pulled my chicken out of the pan and you can see the enormous amount of
juice in there and rendered fat.
So what Iím going to do is just strain off the fat.
If youíve got one of these tools thatís great, if not, you can use a spoon to kind
of ladle it off.
Then youíre going to put the juice back in here, then weíll come back and weíll make
our sauce.
Okay, so, if you like a really, really lemony sauce you can absolutely leave your lemons
in there but I actually prefer to pull them out and serve them with the sauce.
Seeing little bits of chicken in there, I actually like to keep it like that.
Thatís nice flavor.
Same thing with the rosemary, Iíll leave a couple of sprigs in there but Iíll mostly
pull them out just because I think the sauce can get a little overpowering if itís all
left in there.
Iím going to turn the heat back on good and high.
Iím going to add a couple tablespoons of white wine to it, to the pan.
Iím going to scrape up any of those drippings that are on there.
If youíve got any little bits of chicken on the side there just get them wet and then
theyíll eventually just kind of scrape right off.
Iím going to let this reduce down to where the wine is reduced by half.
Then weíre going to come back, add our juice back, add a little extra chicken stock.
Okay, once our wine is reduced down weíre going to add back that juice from the chicken
and if that ever feels like itís not quite enough for you, you can always add a little
bit more chicken stock.
Iím just going to let this reduce down now again, by half.
Okay, our sauce now is well reduced.
Iím just going to finish it with a pat of butter, maybe about a tablespoon and Iíve
got a half a teaspoon of fresh chopped parsley.
Iím going to pull out the big piece of rosemary thatís kind of given its love and weíre
done with.
And the color, you know, after itís been cooked down, it gets a little dull and drab.
This is what Iím looking for, for our sauce.
Give it a little taste.
Nice and tangy, got some rosemary obviously.
Hit it with a little bit of pepper and we are good to go.
Letís go ahead and plate up our chicken.
Okay, so weíve got our chicken here.
Legs and thighs are nice and easy to take off when we butterfly like this.
Let me set him aside and then even the breast is nice and easy since we took out that ribcage.
So you can essentially just go right down the middle and then youíve got a whole breast.
You can serve it with the wing.
I like to eat the wing.
Throw him on the plate there.
Thatís kind of a man sized portion.
Iím going to serve mine along with a little bit of wild rice and how about a fresh ear
of corn because itís just turning summer.
Our sauce, canít forget the sauce.
Lemon, rosemary just kind of right over top and youíve got perfect Tuscan Roast Chicken.
Iíll see you next time on No Recipe Required.