Kat of All Trades

Before I move into talking about 600 ways to use zucchini – it is, after all, nearly that time of year – I want to discuss this garlic scape pesto more. Have I mentioned how peppery and garlicky and creamy and generally delicious it is? Yes? Well, it is. I like this pesto, and I wanted to come up with ways to use it. After all, I made 1/2 cup for my first batch, and then plenty more with the giant bag of scapes. (I’m pretty sure this pizza, which Jeanne told me about on twitter, is in my future.)

Remember way back at the beginning of this blog, when I told you how much I like roasting chicken? Well, I bought a chicken at the greenmarket the same day that I got all of those garlic scapes. I enjoy experimenting with chicken, and it’s hard to screw up. I started thinking that the pesto could be a good rub between the skin and the meat, plus I had that lemon that I’d used for the juice in the pesto, and those potatoes from my CSA, and those green beans from the greenmarket…

Pesto Roasted Chicken with Potatoes

2 or 3 potatoes
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 lemon
1 medium onion (about the size of a tennis ball)
1 chicken (I usually get a 3 lb bird for the two of us)
1/4 c garlic scape pesto
salt
pepper

Preheat oven to 475 degrees Fahrenheit. Wash potatoes and chop into one-inch pieces. Add potatoes to a baking pan (I used my 9 x 13 pyrex dish lined with aluminum foil) and toss with olive oil. Peel onion, and slice lemon and onion into 1/2-inch thick rounds.

Rinse chicken with cold water, and pat dry with paper towels. Use the handle of a wooden spoon to separate the skin from the meat as best you can. I try to separate it on the thighs and back as well as the breasts. You want to separate the skin enough to get your hands under it.

Using your hands, spread the pesto under the skin. It’s gloppy and messy, but do your best to coat the chicken evenly everywhere you lifted the skin. Use about 1 tbsp of the pesto on top of the skin and inside the cavity.

Once you’re done giving your bird a pesto rubdown, take the lemon and onion slices and stuff them inside the cavity. I never keep twine around to tie the drumsticks, so what I do is cut a little slice in the skin near each of them, and then you can tuck the end of the drumstick through that to hold them in place.

Push the potatoes to the sides of the baking dish, making room for the chicken in the middle. Put the chicken in the center of the dish, and sprinkle salt and pepper over it and the potatoes (especially over the potatoes).

Bake for about an hour and twenty minutes, or until a meat thermometer reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit in the thighs (Make sure you aren’t hitting a bone).

Allow the chicken to rest, breast-side down, under a foil tent for about ten minutes before carving and serving.

I didn’t eat meat during what I consider my formative cooking years (ages 20-25ish), so cooking meat has always been a little intimidating to me. Heather was kind enough to share her recipe when I roasted my first chicken back in February, and as it turns out, the prep and roasting are much easier than I’d thought!

Since that first bird, I’ve been really excited to try out different recipes and play around with it. It’s less expensive to buy a whole chicken than to buy four boneless skinless breasts (dinner and a lunch or two for my Ian – my partner – and me), and buying a whole chicken also gives us the bonus of being able to save the bones and other bits for chicken stock, which we can discuss in another post. It’s an all-around win in my book!

Last night, I was going to go back to H’s basic recipe when I realized that I had a lot of grapefruits to use, but no lemons to stuff inside the bird. Change of plans! I pulled out my trusty copy of The Flavor Bible and looked up grapefruit to see what seasonings would work well. Tarragon? We’ve got some. Miso? Dear lord, we have a gigantic container full.

Ian says this is his favorite of the roasted chickens I’ve made thusfar. It’s a little salty from the miso – I think next time I might mix it with a little butter or oil to cut the saltiness – and pretty flavorful and tender.

I served the chicken with this cauliflower gratin recipe to use up a few other ingredients that were languishing in our fridge.  It’s delicious and just the right amount of cheesy, so you can feel kind of healthy while eating a gratin.

Grapefruit-Miso Chicken

1 chicken (I usually get a 3 lb bird for the two of us)
2-3 medium onions
1 grapefruit
3 tbsp miso
1 tbsp dried tarragon

Preheat oven to 475 degrees Fahrenheit. Peel and slice onions into 1/4-inch slices, and lay the slices at the bottom of a large baking pan (I use my 11×17 rectangular cake pan). Peel grapefruit, removing both rind and white pith, and divide into sections. Mix miso and dried tarragon together in a small bowl.

Rinse chicken with cold water, and pat dry with paper towels. Use the handle of a wooden spoon to separate the skin from the meat as best you can.* I try to separate it on the thighs and back as well as the breasts. You want to separate the skin enough to get your hands under it.

Using your hands, spread the miso-tarragon mixture under the skin. It’s gloppy and messy, but do your best to coat the chicken evenly everywhere you lifted the skin. Use the remaining miso mixture to lightly coat the bird on top of the skin, as well as inside the cavity.

Once your bird is thoroughly miso-ed, take the grapefruit slices and stuff them all in the cavity, minus one or two. I never keep twine around to tie the drumsticks, so what I do is cut a little slice in the skin near each of them, and then you can tuck the end of the drumstick through that to hold them in place.

Put the chicken on top of the onions. Squeeze the juice from the remaining two grapefruit slices over it, and then stuff them in the cavity with the others.

Bake for about an hour and twenty minutes, or until a meat thermometer reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit in the thighs (Make sure you aren’t hitting a bone).  The skin on mine got quite dark, so don’t be surprised if that happens – though if it does happen, I’d recommend not eating the skin!

Allow the chicken to rest for about ten minutes before carving and serving.

*This is Heather’s amazing tip. I wish I could take credit!