roasted chicken with salsa di giovanna and sauteed brussels sprouts

roast chicken is one of those soul-warming dishes that are just amazing on a cold, foggy nite in summery san francisco. you may think roasting a whole chicken is a difficult thing, but actually, it's one of the most simplest in terms of preparation and pretty difficult to screw up. it's also inexpensive to make.

this recipe comes from james peterson's cooking, a massive, award-winning cookbook that explores the kitchen essentials and basic cooking techniques that every chef should know. the recipe is very simple compared to others but also very effective and quite tasty. once you get the technique down, you can then vary the recipe by adding aromatics, marinades, dry rubs and so on. so let's get to it.

i start with a fresh young chicken of about 5 pounds and truss the legs and wings with kitchen twine to keep the package compact. the neck and giblets go down around the chicken in a pan that is just large enough to hold everything. this is important because exposed pan surfaces can easily burn and smoke.

the entire chicken is seasoned liberally with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. i also inserted a few sprigs of thyme in the cavity. not part of the recipe, but i had some extra and wanted to get rid of the thyme before it went bad.

a triple layer of foil is rubbed with a tablespoon of room temperature butter and covers the breast, buttered-side down. this protects the breast meat from cooking too fast and drying out before the thigh meat is done. the chicken then goes into a pre-heated oven at 450 degrees for 25 minutes to roast.

with the chicken in the oven, i turned towards prepping the salsa di giovanna which is basically a vinaigrette of lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil and herbs. i last used this over swordfish a couple of weeks ago with much success and knew it would taste amazing on roasted chicken. so i chopped up a few sprigs of mint and oregano, thinly sliced 3 cloves of garlic, and juiced one lemon into a measuring cup.

i combined the lemon juice with three times as much extra virgin olive oil and whisked them into an emulsion. the garlic and herbs went in and sea salt and black pepper seasoned to taste. once combined, i set this aside to let the flavors meld.

after 25 minutes of roasting, i removed the foil from the breast. after another 15 minutes, i checked between the breast and thigh with an instant read thermometer for a temperature of 140 degrees, which would mean the chicken was perfectly done. but i was getting inconsistent readings and when i tilted the chicken to its side, the drippings were still cloudy red. i put it back into the oven for another 10 minutes until the juices ran clear with red streaks. (completely clear juices mean the chicken is overcooked.)

once the chicken was properly done, i let it stand for 10 minutes while i sauteed some sliced brussels sprouts in a little butter until nicely browned. a dusting of salt and black pepper finished off the side dish.

time to plate! i like dark meat so i sliced off the thigh and leg portion and plated it with some of the brussels sprouts and drizzled the vinaigrette over and around the chicken.

the peterson recipe yields moist and flavorful meat that pretty much fell off the bone. while the skin wasn't as crispy as i'd have liked - more time in the oven would've remedied this but that would also have run the risk of overcooking the breast meat - it was plenty tasty and i'd rather have moist, juicy meat over dry, grainy stuff anyday. the chicken tasted fantastic. perfectly seasoned and accented by the salsa di giovanna, giving it a green and lemony bite.

all in all, oven time was around 60 minutes while active prep time was only about 10-15 min. the 5 pound chicken cost me less than $5. cost of tonite's dinner plate? oh, less than $2. average cost for the same entree at a san franciscan eatery? probably around $15-18. of course, my safeway chicken isn't organic, local or free-range, but you know...

for some reason, i always think of roast chicken as a chore to make, but it looks like i just proved myself wrong. the savings in budget is mighty satisfying too.