Tag Archives: chicken

misoyaki roast chicken

One of my favorite websites for recipes is Food 52, the brainchild of two New York food writers, Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs. The recipes are from home cooks across the country, and selected recipes will wind up in a published cookbook. Since I never create my own recipes, I don’t contribute any recipes to the site (I’m more of a recipe follower, and I’m evolving into a recipe-modifier, learning to add my own flair). But, I am often inspired by the recipes that others post there.

served with rice

Misoyaki roast chicken with shoyu onion sauce, posted by timWuNotWoo caught my eye with it’s unique flavors. It generated a lot of attention, too. One of my favorite food bloggers, Jenn of Last Night’s Dinner, posted about it here. So of course I had to make it.

My first hurdle was finding red miso paste. At two grocery stores in my town, including the local Fresh Market, I was handed miso soup when I asked about miso paste. With some diligence, and a trip across town when I got off work early one day, I managed to find it at the Chinese grocery. Turns out they have a lot of neat things there, including the miso paste.

red miso

red miso and mirin

Instead of a whole chicken, I used bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts. I let the chicken sit in the marinade for about six hours, and I wiped off the bulk of the marinade prior to putting the chicken in the oven. According to the recipe, the miso will burn if it’s not scraped off. Turns out that’s true.

chicken, ready to roast

roasted chicken

The chicken was moist, with great flavor. The onion sauce was delicious over the roast chicken breast and the jasmine rice that I served it with. Umami all the way.

served with rice

For the recipe, please visit Food 52 yourself. It’s a great site to check out. The recipe is here.

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keller’s ad hoc-inspired roast chicken

“How did you get the skin so crispy?” It was the first thing my husband asked me as he started carving the bird. I took this as an indicator that this recipe, although we had not tasted it yet, was going to be a great one.

roast chicken & veggies

Let me back up a bit. Before I made this, I had only roasted a chicken once before – years ago, when I was just starting to learn to cook. Unfortunately for me, that first chicken had a few scraggly feathers still left on it when I unwrapped it from the grocer’s plastic. Those few chicken feathers immediately conjured up images of happy white-feathered hens clucking around the yard, and that train of thought led me to think of the pet chicken we owned when I was a kid. Dixie was a sweet hen who, in all honesty, thought she was a dog. Her best friend was our dog, Jesse, and she was always at Jesse’s side.

So, those feathers left on that raw chicken made it really difficult for me to roast and cut up the bird. And I certainly did not enjoy one single bite of it. And, because I was acting so squeamish about the whole thing, I’m sure my husband didn’t enjoy it either. He ate it, but I think he was expecting a good case of food poisoning after the experience.

chicken

But this is a new era for me. Time – and practice in the kitchen – have helped me become less squeamish about handling raw meats, including chickens with scraggly feathers left on them. So, I decided it was time to roast a chicken again.

I’ve mentioned this before, but Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc at Home is a fantastic book, and he has a wonderful recipe on page 22 for roasting a whole chicken on a bed of root vegetables. What I love about his recipes is that he gives great tips before each recipe for how to ensure a perfect result. At the beginning of this recipe, Keller says,

The root vegetables make a bed for the chicken, and the rendering fat and juices from the chicken flavor the vegetables. If you have a big cast-iron skillet, use that.

roasting veggies

For the crispy skin, which was the first thing my husband noticed, Keller advises,

We also often leave it uncovered in the refrigerator for a day or two, which dries the skin and thus helps it to crisp during the roasting.

Adam Roberts of The Amateur Gourmet has written a post detailing the recipe from Keller’s book, so I’ll refer you there for the details.

I used the vegetables that I had on hand, which did not include the rutabagas, leeks, and turnips that the recipe calls for. Instead I used some red new potatoes, small Yukon gold potatoes, a yellow onion, and some carrots. I also used the new Lodge cast-iron skillet I purchased about a month ago. And, since I didn’t know that I was going to roast a chicken two days prior to making it, my chicken sat uncovered in the fridge for about six hours.

roasting veggies

And the chicken? It had intensely flavorful, crispy skin and was moist and tender on the inside. The vegetables were the most flavorful roast vegetables I’ve ever made, thanks to the rendered chicken fat in the skillet. I still need to practice my chicken trussing technique, but that’s simply a cosmetic issue.

roast chicken & veggies

So, thank you, Mr. Keller, for the perfect recipe for reintroducing me to roasting a chicken.

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