by Covert » Tue Feb 01, 2011 8:54 pm
This is from watching, because I don’t cook (anymore), and waiting, and waiting; but I want to tell you about something so simple but so good. And I am sure some of you, or most of you, know all about this kind of preparation. Last weekend at our cozy mountain lake cabin Lynn rubbed a chicken with maybe a half teaspoon of corn starch and butter to coat it nicely. She then sprinkled it liberally with salt, - more than is probably healthy, maybe a teaspoon, and put a bunch of rosemary in the cavity and another bunch in the baking pan under the bird. Lynn baked it at a hot 450 degrees f. for about an hour, rotating it once 90 degrees. Oh, and she boiled small skinned potatoes for about ten minutes, then rubbed them with olive oil and baked them with and around the chicken. We tend to like pureed squash and broccoli with chicken, but a number of vegetables would have worked. It’s not summer, but I am thinking corn would have been another wonderful side, cut off the cob, of course, so you could eat it with a fork. The key is the golden, crispy skin. Sooooo tasty. And there was a lot of juice. Don’t tent it or it will get soggy. Just let it sit in the air for about ten minutes, or less, if you get a good whiff of it and can’t wait. Have at it! We drank a 1996 Chateau Batailley with it, not because it goes with herby chicken, but because we love that sort of wine, with anything. Wonderfully mature and sweet with a great finish. Sitting there in the country scene, I thought to myself that a dinner at Daniel might only be slightly better, or even not.
