Pip's Plate

When I’m craving comfort food, I instantly think of roasting a chicken. There are lots of different ways to roast a chicken, including this one with proscuitto and sage. Last night, we had guests coming for dinner, so I decided to try a new recipe.

This roasted chicken recipe is moist and has depth of flavor due to brining the chicken for the majority of the day. The mustard-thyme sauce for this roasted chicken is out of this world!

The original recipe calls for a lot of sitting around for the chicken – which translates into starting this recipe early in the morning or the day before. I trimmed it down a bit since I started around noon that day (the recipe below includes my modifications).

You could easily take the approach of a slow cooker for this recipe. Boil the brine first thing in the morning, then dump your chicken in it to sit for the day. When you get home after work, follow the rest of the instructions. Or, if you don’t have time to let the chicken sit for an hour and then cook for another hour, you can use a blow dryer to dry it out after removing from the brine.

Serve this chicken with Green Salad with Olives and Roasted Mediterranean Potatoes for a complete meal. For an accompanying wine, a good syrah works well. You could also go with white wine and try an albarino or dry Riesling.

Roasted Chicken with Mustard-Thyme Sauce
serves: 6

Ingredients
Brine
10 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup coarse kosher salt
peel from 1 lemon, using a vegetable peeler
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons honey
3 large sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
4-1/2 pound hormone-free chicken

Cooking the Chicken you will also need
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth

Mustard-Thyme Sauce
1 tablespoon butter at room temperature
1-2 tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons whole grain mustard (dijon is fine if that’s all you can find)
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

Directions
1. To make the brine: in a 3-quart pot, bring 10 1/2 cups water, 1/2 cup kosher salt, peel from 1 lemon, 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, 3 tablespoons honey, 3 large fresh thyme sprigs and 1 bay leaf to a boil. Stir once or twice once getting hot to make sure the ingredients are dissolving.

2. Once boiling, remove the brine from heat. Pour into a 6-quart pot and cool slightly – about 5 minutes. Add the chicken to the brine and put in the refrigerator for 4-6 hours. Remove chicken from brine then rinse and pat dry. Return to the fridge, uncovered on a plate, for an additional hour. This will dry the chicken. If you’re pressed for time, use a blow dryer to dry the chicken.

3. Heat oven to 375 degrees F.

4. Place dry chicken in a roasting pan. Bake for 20 minutes then add 1 cup of broth. Bake for another 20 minutes then add another 1 cup of broth. Bake for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and pour out the broth to get 2 cups of cooking liquid. Let the chicken sit for 10 minutes while you make the sauce.

5. To make the sauce, heat 1 tablespoon butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Once the butter starts bubbling, about 1 minute, add 1 tablespoon flour and whisk together. Add the reserved cooking liquid, 3 tablespoons mustard and 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves. Whisk together and bring to a simmer. Simmer the sauce until it starts to thicken, about 5 minutes. I suggest adding another 1 tablespoon of flour after the sauce simmers for a few minutes to continue thickening. Season with salt and pepper to taste only if needed.

6. Cut the chicken and serve with the sauce. Enjoy!

recipe from epicurious