Harvest Roast Chicken with Grapes, Olives, and Rosemary

This is a sad, pathetic picture of a delicious, wonderful dinner. We scarfed it down too quickly for me to take a picture of the whole plate of chicken and veggies, so you get the leftovers in a cold bowl. Sorry.

One of my gifts for Christmas was the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. I was thrilled, because I’ve tried a few recipes from Deb’s blog, and I’ve enjoyed them quite a bit. Last night I decided to try my first recipe from the cookbook, and then I decided to pair it with another recipe from the cookbook. Why not, right? Because I’m nice that way, I suggest you try them. Then, when you’re finished sopping up every bite and wanting more, you might want to go buy her cookbook. Most of the recipes are not available on her blog, so don’t bother looking there.

Harvest Roast Chicken with Grapes, Olives, and Rosemary
Ingredients

• 3 lbs chicken parts (thighs, drumsticks, and/or breasts, depending on your light meat/dark meat preferences)
• Kosher salt (Deb says table, but I prefer kosher)
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup seedless grapes
• 1 cup pitted kalamata olives
• 2 small shallots, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1 tblsp finely chopped fresh rosemary

Preheat oven to 450.

Pat chicken and season generously with salt and pepper. Heat oil in an ovenproof 12 inch heavy skillet (cast iron if you have it…mine is enameled cast iron, and I pink puffy heart it…truly) over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Working in two batches, brown the chicken, skin side down first and turning over once.

After you’ve browned the chicken, return to the pan, and surround with grapes, olives, and shallots. Transfer the skillet to the oven and roast the chicken until it has just cooked through, about 20 minutes. Transfer the chicken, grapes, and olives to a platter, then add wine and broth o the pan. Bring to a boil, and reduce by half. Pour over chicken, garnish with rosemary, and serve.

Wow, was that good. I mean, really, really good. I was tempted to add a pat of butter when reducing the sauce, just because what’s not better with butter? I resisted the urge for the purity of the recipe, and wow, it did not need the butter. Really, really good.

I accompanied the chicken with another recipe from the cookbook, which Maya said she liked EVEN MORE than the chicken, which she loved.

Roasted Fingerling and Carrot Coins
Ingredients

• 2 lbs fingerling potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/2 inch ‘coins’
• 2 lbs large carrots (you want them about the same circumference as the potatoes if you can find them), peeled and sliced into 1/2 inch ‘coins’
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• freshly ground pepper
• 2 tblsp minced fresh dill, or herb of your choice (I used rosemary, to match the chicken

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
(I used the same 450 oven from the chicken recipe)

Generously coat 2 large baking sheets with olive oil. (I used 1.5 lbs each potatoes and carrots, and put them on one sheet rather than two.) Spread the vegetables out on the prepared sheets and drizzle them with remaining olive oil before seasoning them with salt and pepper. Roast for 20 minutes before using a large spatula to flip the vegetables.

Roast for another 10 to 15 minutes, until they are brown and crisp at the edges. The potatoes should be soft and tender inside, the carrots soft but not mushy.

Remove from the oven. Season with additional salt and pepper, if needed, then sprinkle with herbs and serve.

Mine didn’t get brown, probably because I roasted them in too hot of an oven. Or perhaps because I didn’t measure my oil, and used too much. Either way, they were really, really good.

Give these a try, then consider getting yourself the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook.