Chicken and Taters

I don't care, this triple-stack is AMAZING.

I like cooking.  My mom taught me to cook simple things growing up and, once I got to high school, I could cook whole meals.  When I went off to college and started living off campus, I never went hungry; the horror stories of students living on nothing but cheap ramen never came my way.  If I wanted ramen, I'd make it because I wanted it - not it being the only option available.  My enjoyment of cooking melds really well with my love of books.  As evidence, next to my sleeping dog is a bookshelf filled with cookbooks.  Behind my wife (who took the picture) is another one of those bookshelves filled with more cookbooks and books about wine, beer, and cocktails.  Sometimes, Often, I sit and read through recipes.  I'll plan menus and cooking times in my head, simply thinking about dinner parties.  Several people have asked me why I didn't become a chef.  God, no.  If I ever did have a restaurant, it'd be for 10 people per night; small, intimate with delicious food that people won't bitch about.  That's all ego, though.

Anyway, I hadn't cooked in a while, so I bought a chicken for roasting.  I seasoned it with Stubb's Chicken Rub.  I seasoned it inside, outside and made sure I got under its skin.

I left the chicken in the fridge for over 24 hours.  Then I took it out for about an hour before roasting to get the chill off of it.

Bowl on right contains victim.



My parents-in-law gave my wife and I this cool roaster from Pigeon Forge, Tennessee several years ago.  If you've done "beer can chicken", it's the same concept but better and made for the oven.  The cast iron deep skillet (Lodge...super products) was gifted to us by my brother-in-law and his boyfriend not more than two weeks ago.

Bird wonders what its fate will be...

Relax, nothing bad's happening yet.

A meal without drink is no meal.



Simple.

So, in the center of the roaster is a little well - about 4 or 5 inches deep.  I chopped up a garlic clove and a whole lemon.  In the well they went, topped up with some homemade Piesporter-style wine.  It's a well-balanced white, with the sweetness of a spatlese; I've had it with a variety of food styles and preparations and have never been disappointed.  It has a nice taste of crisp apple and cantaloupe; the bouquet is of elderflowers.



After that, chicken went on the roaster.  The well went into the cavity and the bird stood up straight.

Then into a cold oven (as in not turned on; it's for the ceramic's sake) it all goes.

Hmm, I can get used to this.

I set it for 350 degrees Fahrenheit (176.667 Celsius or Gas 4, if you're not American).  Then I started prepping for my side dish: stove-roasted potatoes.  The recipe I was looking at was for oven roasting these taters, but, as you can see, there's not a lot of room to have another pan.  Plus, the potatoes needed a higher temperature, about 450 degrees (I'm not calculating Celsius, figure it out). 











Yeah, Wal-Mart, Kroger, and Aldi products in da house.

I had about a pound and a half of red potatoes (some nice new potatoes would probably be better), a sweet onion (the recipe called for a red onion), 8 cloves of garlic, salt, ground black pepper, and dried rosemary.  I didn't have any peppercorns to mill, as that would be better.  Fresh rosemary would be nice, too, but my plant's not ready and I'm not paying six dollars for a flimsy sprig of rosemary.  So prep:

Not too small; I also like potato skin.

Peel garlic, leave whole.

Remove any green stems if you see them.

2 Tablespoons of unsalted butter.

Throw it into skillet (range set on medium heat) along with 2 Tbs of olive or veg oil.

Slice onion.

Butter/oil foaming?  Throw in garlic.  Picture sucks - potatoes set aside in clean bowl (yes, I washed it - salmonella is not as tasty as people make it seem).

Once garlic is fragrant and has a little color, throw in onion.  Let those cook a bit.

Get the taters in, make sure you toss it up to cover everything in the butter/oil mix.

About a tablespoon of dried rosemary.  Use more or less, if you like.

Sprinkle about a tablespoon of sweet paprika, then toss it all around.

It's been about an hour, temp check says it's still not safe to eat.  Rotate the dish, it'll need another 30 minutes or so.  Boost the heat to 400 degrees.

Taters been cooking for about 20 minutes.  Add a little water for steam and cover.  Test taters for doneness with a fork.

While all the magic is happening, pour yourself a glass.

Take the chicken out to rest and...

Taters go under the broiler to crisp up.

Ready for plating.

Serve on your best china.

 

So, the chicken was juicy and well-flavored; not salty like other rubs I've had.  The rosemary and garlic flavors were subtle in the crispy taters.  I had to go to work later in the night, so no more wine.  Rather, I had Seagram's ginger ale, which went well with the meal.  Simple and tasty.