Why Shop Outside in the Winter?

Posted on | January 11, 2010 |No Comments

Baby, it’s cold outside. But, even on a sub-zero Saturday morning, the St. Paul Farmer’s Market is the place to be. Meat people — those farmers selling chickens, beef, pork, lamb and fish — can just set their wares on the table without worrying about things over heating or spoiling. Get the beef for pot roast or chicken for soup or pork for chili. Go inside to warm up and taste artisan cheeses, old-fashioned chocolates, small batch salsa, and hand-rolled strudels. Stock up for the week and plan to settle in by the fire. Here’s a recipe for simple, humble roast chicken. It makes a fabulous Sunday dinner. Roast two at once and enjoy through the week.

Use a big roasting hen, the kind sold by Bar 5 Poultry and Lori Callister Farms (at the St. Paul Farmers Market). You don’t often see them in the grocery store because they are older and a bit tougher than the broilers. But age trumps beauty when it comes to flavor. These birds are delicious. The technique is simple. Start the chicken off in a very hot oven (about 450-degrees F.) Blasting heat crisps the skin and seals in juices. Lowering the temperature cooks the chicken evenly, unattended. Make a sauce of the juices and be sure to scrape up the nubs at the bottom of the roasting pan. Then, be sure to reduce the sauce to enrich the flavors.

Sunday Roast Chicken
Serves 4 to 6

3 to 5 pound roasting chicken
3 to 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
Coarse salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 bunch fresh parsley
3 sprigs thyme or 1 teaspoon dried
1/4 cup white wine
3 cups chicken stock
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 teaspoon fresh, chopped thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried

Heat the oven to 450-degrees F. Remove the giblets from the chicken and pull away any loose fat from the opening. Rinse the bird inside and out and pat dry. Rub the chicken all over with the softened butter, gently pushing the butter under the breast skin. Sprinkle the salt and pepper inside and outside of the bird’s cavity. Stuff the herbs inside the chicken.
Put the chicken, breast side up, on a v-shaped rack (or flat rack) and set in a roasting pan. Roast for about 20 minutes, reduce the heat to 375-degrees F., and continue roasting. The chicken is done when the leg wiggles freely in its joint and the juices run clear from the thigh when pricked with a sharp knife. A thermometer inserted into the lower meaty part of the thigh should register 170-degrees F. This means about 45 minutes more for a 3-pound bird, or a total cooking time of about 1 hour. For larger birds, add another 10 minutes for each additional pound. Set the chicken on a warm platter, propping up the hindquarters with an inverted saucer and tent it with foil to keep it warm while you make the sauce.
Remove the rack from the pan. Tilt the pan and spoon off as much of the fat as possible. Set the pan over high heat to caramelize all the juices but be careful that they don’t burn. Whisk in the wine, scraping up all the drippings and boil until it is thick and syrupy. Add about 1 cup of the stock and boil it down to a glaze. Repeat with another 2 cups of the stock, boiling it down to about 1/2 cup. Add the chopped parsley and thyme, and salt and pepper to taste. Slice the chicken and serve with the sauce.

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