Buttermilk-Marinated and Herbed Roast Chicken

Buttermilk is amazing for fried chicken and makes it tender and juicy, and it's also awesome for roasted chicken. The meat is tender and juicy and the skin as this amazing tang. It's super simple. I used the recipe from The Times this week, but added the herbs because I had them. You're welcome to omit the herbs, or stuff the chicken with onion or lemon or some combo of aromatics. Yum! The buttermilk also gives the chicken a really rich, dark brown skin. You just need to start the night before. 

Serves 2-4

Ingredients:

1 3-pound chicken

1 pint buttermilk

3 tablespoons kosher salt

handful sage and rosemary

Black Garlic-Roasted Cornish Game Hen

This is a simple and tasty weeknight dinner. I used black garlic, but you can swap in regular garlic - just halve it and mash it to a paste. The black garlic is a sweeter more subtle garlic flavor. 

Sunday Night Roast Chicken with Root Vegetables

Yesterday was a rainy Sunday and I was just really in the mood for a nice roast chicken. Roasting a chicken on top of root vegetables is always an easy 1-pot dinner, and I had some extra time, so I brined the chicken, too. (You don't need to brine a chicken if you buy a kosher chicken.) I think it added some flavor and made it juicier. This is a really nice Sunday dinner, hearty and with good flavors. Feel free to change the root veggies and do carrots or potatoes or butternut squash - whatever you like.

Ingredients:
1 4 lb chicken

Brine:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup salt
4 garlic cloves, crushed
tbsp black pepper corns
water

Roast chicken with root vegetables

I went to the farmers market yesterday and picked up some good looking root vegetables. I got carrots, yellow carrots, a parsnip, a big leek, a turnip, and an onion. I decided they would be a great bottom to the roar chicken recipe I'd been wanting to try from Simple Fresh Southern. It turned out wonderfully, even though I nixed the wine because I didn't have any. It filled Jamie's apartment with the most homey, delicious smell (he smelled it when he opened the door downstairs and was hoping it was coming from his apartment). Plus with only two of us, there's plenty for leftovers and stock - after we cut all the meat off I threw the carcass in the freezer along with the neck.

Ingredients:
A selection of root vegetables including some onions and/or leeks
A few sprigs fresh time
Oil
1 lemon
1 3.5 lb chicken
1/2 cup chicken stock

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425. Cut up vegetables into 1 inch chunks and put onto a cast iron skillet with thyme. Toss with oil, salt, and pepper.




Rinse and dry the chicken and bring to room temperature if you have time. Put the chicken breast side down on the vegetables. Squeeze half a lemon over the back and season liberally with kosher salt and pepper. Roast 20 minutes. Take the skillet out of the oven and carefully take off the chicken. Stir the veggies and add 1/2 cup broth. Put the chicken back on top back side down and squeeze the remaining lemon half in top and season liberally. Put back in the oven for 40 minutes. Take it out and let rest tented in foul 10 minutes. Carve up and serve with veggies!