Accounting for Taste

A Sunday roast chicken dinner, for me, is synonymous with the advent of Fall and through the winter months. Roast a chicken and you know you have a comfortable meal. Alter that a little by butterflying the chicken, a surprisingly simple task that can be carried out with a pair of kitchen scissors, and you have a quick dinner that satisfies the soul as well as your taste buds.

Here, buttermilk, which is usually associated with fried chicken, helps to tenderize the chicken and conveys the aromatics: you really get the full value of the rosemary, pepper and garlic. If you want to substitute maple syrup for the honey, you can. Best of all, you can leave the marinating bird in the fridge for up to two days; thus, it gets more tender and you know you have a dinner that needs no more than to be popped into the oven. Now that’s a win in my book!

In the original recipe, it directs you to line a roasting pan with tinfoil. Next time we plan to eliminate the tinfoil lining and use a rimmed sheet pan. We believe we would get better caramelization on both the bird and the vegetables.

If you are not thrilled with the vegetable choices, swap any of them out for sweet potatoes, white potatoes, carrots, onions, or parsnips. Just make sure that they will fit in one layer in the sheet pan.

Buttermilk Roasted Chicken and Veggies

Servings: 4
Time: 1½ hr + overnight marinating
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

For the Chicken

1 4-lb. chicken
2 cups buttermilk
¼ cup plus 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, lightly crushed
1 Tbsp. crushed black peppercorns
2 Tbsp. Maldon or other sea salt
2 Tbsp. fresh rosemary leaves, roughly chopped
1 Tbsp. honey

For the Vegetables

1 lb. Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved
4-5 large shallots, peeled, quartered through the root end
1 1/2 lbs. butternut squash, cut into 1 1/4-inch cubes (we only used half of our large butternut squash)
2 Tbsp. olive oil
Salt

Directions

Butterfly chicken by placing breast side down and using heavy-duty kitchen shears to cut along both sides of backbone. Discard backbone, turn chicken over and open it like a book. Press gently to flatten it.
Place chicken in a large freezer bag. Add buttermilk, ¼ cup oil, garlic, peppercorns, salt, rosemary and honey. Seal bag securely and refrigerate overnight or up to two days.
When ready to start prepping the veggies, heat oven to 400 degrees.
Remove chicken from marinade and place on a rack so excess can drip off. Place the cut vegetables onto the roasting or sheet pan, drizzle with 2 tablespoons oil and 1 teaspoon salt, toss with your hands to coat evenly.
Place the chicken, breast side up, on top of the vegetables. Drizzle the bird with remaining 2 tablespoons oil. After roasting for 45 minutes, stir the vegetables around the edges of the pan a bit, turn sheet pan halfway, continue roasting until well browned and until juices run clear when chicken is pierced where leg joins thigh, about another 20 minutes.
Place chicken on a carving board and allow to rest for 10 minutes. While the chicken rests, stir the vegetables in the pan and place them back into the oven.
After the ten minute rest, cut the chicken into pieces and place a portion on each of four plates, along with some of the roasted vegetables, and drizzle each serving with pan juices.

http://www.lynnandruss.com

Loosely adapted from a recipe by Nigella Lawson