Dean & Deluca Roast Chicken

Posted by    |  January 10, 2010  |  Filed under: Recipes

Adapted from The Dean and Deluca Cookbook by David Rosengarten

I’ve been making this dish for almost 10 years now- way before I was an experienced cook.  It is one of very few recipes I make routinely.  The meat is incredibly juicy and full of the flavors of the spices.  The sauce is so simple and beautiful. If you make the spice mixture ahead of time, this is a great dish to do ahead on a day when you don’t have much time to cook.  Quadruple the spice mixture and keep it in a jar.  Each recipe uses 1 ½ tablespoons of the spice mixture.  The night or morning before you want to make the dish, marinate your bird.  Then all you have to do is wipe the marinade off and roast it.  Could that be simpler on a busy night?

You can also do this with chicken parts- either cut up your whole bird or use drumsticks or just bone-in, skin on breasts.

Ingredients

Meat
One whole chicken, any size
For spice mixture
1 teaspoon ground coriander seed
1 teaspoon garam masala (Indian spice mixture, usually available in ethnic aisle)
½ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon each ground allspice, cinnamon, chili powder, cardamom, fenugreek

For marinade
1 cup plain yogurt
6-8 cloves garlic
5 tablespoons chopped fresh ginger
1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For Jus
3 medium onions, thinly sliced
1 ½ cups chicken stock (preferred) or chicken broth
Pinch of saffron threads

Instructions

Prepare chicken

  1. Preheat oven to 450-degrees.
  2. Remove any packets of organ meats or neck from inside bird.  Reserve for gravies or stock.  Pull fat from around tail.  Rinse inside and outside of bird and pat dry.
  3. Using poultry or kitchen shears, cut along either side of backbone of bird.  Remove, reserving for stock.

Prepare marinade

  1. Place marinade ingredients and spice mixture in blender or food processor.  Process until smooth.
  2. Place chicken in zip-top plastic bag with chicken.  Squeeze as much air out of bag as possible and refrigerate, at least 4 hours and up to 24.

Roast chicken

  1. Place onions on bottom of roasting pan and pour enough stock into bottom of dish to just immerse onions.  Add saffron.
  2. Place chicken in oven and roast, watching browning with oven light (avoid opening door).  Adjust heat, if necessary, by 25-degrees if getting too browned too quickly.
  3. When internal temperature reaches 160-degrees, remove from oven to carving board.  Loosely tent with aluminum foil and allow to rest for 10 minutes.
  4. Spoon onion and saffron mixture with juices over chicken to serve.

Off Script…

  • Cut the whole chicken into parts
  • Use just your favorite bone-in, skin-on parts (breasts, legs etc.)
  • Substitute spice mixture for a Moroccan spice mixture called Ras el Hanout.  It can be a bit tricky to find but can easily be ordered online.  The Ras has turmeric in it, which contributes a beautiful golden color to the skin.

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