- Hey guys, okay, so now that school is back in session,
I am a big believer in Sunday night dinners.
It is the perfect time to bring everybody to the table
and set a week off right.
It's something that my family did with me when I was a kid
that I started doing when I went to college
with my roommates and now continue to do
with my own kids
and I couldn't think of a better dinner
for a Sunday night meal
than a roast chicken with caramelized root vegetables.
It's one of those dinners that just really hits the spot.
It's comforting and delicious
and will also provide some leftovers
for the rest of the week.
Let me show you how I make it
So there are a few key tips that you must keep in mind
when roasting chicken.
It's a very simple recipe and technique
that everybody should have in their repertoire
but it does boil down to a few key tips
and tip number one is to roast your chicken
in a cast iron skillet.
I love to roast chicken this way
because it really does turn out to be so juicy
and flavorful, and that is really thanks
to the cast iron skillet that has such a great, even heat.
We're going to use both of these cast iron skillets,
we're going to use one for the chicken
and one for the vegetables,
which is going to make this dish really easy
because they both can go in the oven at the same time.
These are 10 inch skillets that I'm using
which is another great feature because they both can fit
in the oven at the same time.
If you would like to win these skillets
and you are just joining us, they are actually part
of my Back To School Bonanza Giveaway.
You can click the annotation or the link in the description
to see everything that's part of that giveaway
and get caught up.
Now the next tip really has to do
with the type of chicken you buy
so for this we are going to use a whole chicken
and I have tried this recipe with conventional chicken,
I've tried it organic chicken,
I have also tried it with Kosher chicken
and let me tell you, the Kosher chicken wins by a mile.
It is really the best chicken to use
when you're roasting a bird like this
simply because of the way that the Kosher chickens
are cleaned with salt, it actually acts like a brine
which means that you're going to get a more flavorful,
juicy chicken when everything is said and done.
So you're going to let your chicken rest at room temperature
for about 15 to 20 minutes
and then, meanwhile, you're going to take
three tablespoons of melted butter,
to that, you're going to add one garlic clove
that's been minced,
half a teaspoon of salt,
one teaspoon of fresh rosemary
and some freshly cracked pepper.
And then what you want to do is go in
and just loosen the chicken skin between the breast
with your finger, just to get it going
and then you can take a spoon and continue.
You basically just want to loosen that skin
so that there's a pocket
and then, in that pocket, you are going to spoon in
two spoonfuls of this delicious garlic butter.
I know, but this is what is going to make this chicken
so delicious, is the butter
and this is really something that I learned from my husband,
I think it's a French technique.
You know the French, they love their butter
and I couldn't agree more.
It is really the secret to success.
So you're just going to do that on both sides
and then you want to work the butter in
with your hands, massaging it around,
just making sure it's nice and distributed
and then you do want to make sure
that you do leave probably a half a tablespoon
of the remaining butter, because we're going to use that
to brush the top of the chicken.
At this stage, you do want to trim off any remaining fat
that might have collected down by the cavity.
This can just be done with some kitchen shears.
You want to do that because, otherwise,
you're going to end up with a really greasy pan sauce
and that's something we want to avoid
so go ahead and just snip that off.
At this stage, we do want to truss our chicken.
You can do that either just with some butcher's twine,
you could tie those legs up
or, what I think is even easier,
is you can take a paring knife
and make a little incision on both sides,
just at the base of the cavity
kind of where the flaps of skin kind of rest
and then you're going to take the legs
and go in crosswise,
insert one leg into one incision
and then take the other leg
and put it in the other incision.
It's a bit of a wrestling match, I will be honest
but don't worry, just keep kind of maneuvering that chicken
and they will fit in those incisions.
You just want to make sure you don't make the slit
too big or it'll be too loose
so you do kind of want to make sure it's nice and snug.
Then we are going to take our chicken
and place it in our cast iron skillet
and then the final step is just to take
that remaining butter and brush the whole top
of the chicken,
and this is why it's really helpful if your chicken
is at room temperature
because if it's too cold, that butter
will just congeal right up and it will be harder to brush
and then you just want to finish the top
with a little bit of salt and some freshly cracked pepper.
You can just set that aside,
and now we can get to work on our vegetables.
In the other skillet, we're going to add
some diced Vidalia onions.
The Vidalia onions are the sweet onion
so if you're at the store and you don't see anything
that says Vidalia, just go for the onions
that say "sweet," it's basically the same thing.
Okay, so we are going to slice our onion in half,
and see, this is where our fabulous Wusthof knives
are going to come into play,
another item in the giveaway.
And then I like to cut off the two root ends
and that makes it really easy to remove the skin.
And then you're just going to make three to four slices,
turn your onion and then make vertical slices
and that will give you some equal size chunks.
And then sprinkle it in the bottom of your cast iron skillet
and then we're also going to add two red potatoes,
I just leave the skins on because, personally,
that's where all the nutrients are.
We're also going to add two sweet potatoes,
three garlic cloves.
You're going to slice them thinly
and then add them to your vegetable mixture
and then you're going to drizzle the whole thing
in some olive oil.
Season to taste with some salt and pepper
and then add a half a teaspoon of herbs de provence.
Now, here's another thing that makes this so easy.
You don't even need to touch it.
You don't need to stir, you don't need to toss,
we are going to put this in the oven just like this
because what is going to happen
is as those vegetables roast, they will start to caramelize
on the bottom and they will cook down and become smaller.
And then once they do, you can go in
and kind of stir them with a spoon.
Okay, so here comes tip number three
when it comes to roasting a perfectly done chicken.
It has to do with the temperature.
I'm a firm believer of low and slow is the way to go
so we are going to put these into a low oven
at 350 degrees Fahrenheit
for an hour and a half.
I know that sounds like a lot of time
but it's on a Sunday, hopefully you have more time,
you do need to plan ahead,
this is slow food and when you make slow food,
it does take some time.
As your chicken roasts, you do want to check on it
about every 20 minutes or so
because what you'll see is that that chicken will start
to produce a beautiful pan juice
and you want to go in there with a spoon
and just spoon it over the chicken
and that will ensure that that chicken
becomes nice and juicy, and the skin golden brown.
The other thing that I like to do,
as more and more juice is formed,
is also take a spoonful and add it to the vegetables
because that also is really good.
You add that to those vegetables,
it will give them the most fantastic flavor.
Once your chicken is done, you'll notice it will be
a beautiful golden brown,
those juices in the bottom will be nice and sticky
and delicious, and you'll notice your vegetables
will also look kind of sticky and delicious.
That's the look you're going for,
you do want them to be nice and candied.
Okay, so we are nearing the crescendo.
What we want to do at this stage
is take our chicken out of the skillet
and put it on a cutting board,
it really does need to rest for about 10 minutes
just to preserve all of those juices inside.
If you go to cut in it right away,
they're going to spill out all over that board
and you're going to end up with a dry bird,
not so good.
That's okay because we have a little bit more work
to do in the form of creating a pan sauce.
You can just take that skillet and put it over your cooktop
and you're going to add a quarter cup of white wine.
I like to use a dry wine like a Chardonnay.
Now if you don't drink, that's okay,
at this stage you could add a half a cup of chicken broth
then you just want to let this sauce reduce down
until it starts to thicken
and then at that stage we're going to add
a teaspoon of Dijon mustard,
You can give that a whisk.
Now if you've added the wine,
at this stage you would then add the chicken broth.
I say start with a half a cup,
see what that looks like.
If you you feel that that's the right consistency
you can stop there.
If you would like your pan sauce to be a little thinner,
you could just add more chicken broth.
And then you just want to finish it off
with some freshly cracked pepper
and there you have it, your pan sauce is done.
Okay, so now for the bird.
Here is the way that I think is the easiest way
to carve a chicken.
I am sure here on YouTube there are all kinds of tutorials
from lots of chefs and you're certainly welcome
to go check those out
but if you want to know the down and dirty
easy way to do it,
from a home cook, this is how I do it.
You're first going to begin by cutting off the legs
with your knife, and you'll see
the joint will expose itself,
just give it a wiggle and you can slice down
with your chef knife
and transfer the leg to a platter.
You're going to do that on the other side
and then at this stage it's also really easy
to remove the wings
basically using the same principle,
just look for that joint and give it a chop.
So now you have an exposed bird
that's going to be so much easier to cut the breasts off
because you've got the legs and the wings removed.
You're going to slice the top of the breast
just by the breast bone
and then on the other side,
you're going to slice it horizontally
and then you'll see that will remove the breast meat
and you'll see it won't be a completely clean cut,
there'll be more chicken that will be left,
you can just go ahead and just remove as much as you can
and then at that stage, you can slice it
into more bite-size slices
and do the same thing on the other side.
Then we're going to take our vegetables
and we're going to place that
on the other side of the platter.
And then the final thing that I like to do
is just spoon over that beautiful pan sauce
over the chicken.
That will keep it nice and moist and flavorful.
And there you have it, dinner is served.
I love this recipe because it is the perfect thing to make
on a Sunday night when you might have
a little bit more time left in your week.
It's also the most delicious dinner that will bring
everybody to the table quickly.
Okay, so now just a little tip regarding the clean up.
How do you clean a cast iron pan?
Basically, you want to take anything that is left in the pan
and scrape it off with the Lodge scraper,
again, another thing that comes in the giveaway.
Then you want to fill your pan with water
and at this stage, you could just use a little drop
or two of soap, however there are people out there
that actually do not wash their cast iron pans.
I know, but it's part of the seasoning.
I do put a little squirt or two of soap.
Give it a good scrub
and then here's the other tip,
you want to dry this pan immediately
because if you do not, it can have a tendency of rusting
and you don't want that
so just make sure you pat it dry really well
and then once your pan is completely dry
you then want to just wipe it down with some canola oil
and then once that's all wiped into the iron,
the other thing that I like to do,
and I learned this from my grandmother,
is to put it in the warm oven.
Even though your oven is off, it's still warm
and it's a really great thing to put your cast iron in there
to allow all of that oil to get soaked into the pan.
I just leave it in there overnight
and then in the morning it's nice and cool
and ready to go and I can store it away.
All right, you guys, so there you have it,
a roast chicken in a cast iron skillet
with caramelized vegetables.
I hope you give this one a try
and let me know what you think
and if you haven't already entered
my Back To School Bonanza Giveaway,
what are you waiting for?
Head on over to the Inspired Home website to enter.
One winner will be chosen at random
and notified by email.
All right, you guys, I will see you back here next week
for another delicious back to school recipe.
Until then, bye.
(light folksy music)
♫ Loving you is easy, you're amazing
♫ Please take a bite
♫ of my apple pie
♫ Oh love loving
♫ love loving you
♫ It's a piece of cake
♫ Oh yes, yes it's true
♫ Because it's you ♫