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Glazed Roast Chicken with Porcini and Potatoes

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glazed roast chicken with porcini and potatoes

“How the hell does one complicate a roast chicken?!?!” was the response I got when I texted my cousin that I’d made a really good roast chicken, “but it was a complicated one.”

How does one turn a dish that should be simple and straightforward into a four-hour-long headache of loads of dirtied pots and pans and dishes and mutterings of “will this ever be over”? Three words: stuffing, glaze, gravy. Three more words: sensitive smoke alarm. Four more italic words: two additional side dishes. You would’ve thought I was throwing a fancy dinner party, and I guess I was. For myself.

soaking porcini mushroomsthinly sliced shallots

sauteing shallotsshallots and mushrooms in pan

At some point during this whole process it occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, I was putting an unnecessary amount of effort into a roast chicken. But I soldiered on, through the soaking and rinsing and straining of the mushrooms, the porcini-shallot stuffing, the honey-Marsala glaze, the skillet potatoes, and the gravy, all the while trying to ignore that hateful smoke alarm which has become the bane of my existence, and I am not being overdramatic, it’s terrible.

I enjoyed the chicken far more than anything else on my plate, which is actually saying a lot since I’m more of a side dish girl myself. But the side dishes this night (creamed broccoli and carrot and fennel confit) failed to sufficiently impress, and this is the only mention they’re getting.

creamed broccolicarrot and fennel confit

But the chicken, with its crispy sweet skin smothered in rich and earthy porcini gravy, was moist and flavorful and delicious. The drumstick actually beckoned me to pick it up and bite the sticky glazed meat off the bone, something I’m almost never tempted to do, being the classy lady I am. The potatoes and mushrooms alongside were good, although the potatoes were a little dry and weren’t as crispy as they could’ve been, and I couldn’t tell how much the mushrooms had actually benefitted from being stuffed and cooked inside the chicken, but neither of these details mattered once the mixture was smothered in that intense porcini gravy.

chicken stuffed with porcini mixtureglaze

yukon gold potatoesbrowning potatoes

glazed roast chickenpotatoes and porcini mushroom mixture

Still, I had to conclude that all the extra efforts just weren’t worth it. A roast chicken need not and should not be complicated. My favorite version is one where the bird is patted very dry and sprinkled simply with lots of salt and pepper and cooked on a rack in a roasting pan. When it’s done, fresh herbs like thyme or rosemary are whisked into the collected pan juices, which are then poured over the carved meat. So straightforward, it’s hardly even a recipe, unlike the 10-stepper below.

Better to keep a roast chicken simple, I say, so you can focus your attention on the side dishes.

glazed roast chicken with porcini and potatoes

Glazed Roast Chicken with Porcini and Potatoes, from Gourmet, March 2009

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups dried porcini mushrooms (1 3/4 oz)
  • 1 cup thinly sliced shallots
  • 5 Tbsp olive oil, divided
  • 1 1/2 tsp chopped thyme plus 3 whole sprigs
  • 5 Tbsp dry or sweet Marsala, divided
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp mild honey
  • 1 whole chicken (3 to 3 1/2 lbs)
  • 2 1/4 lbs Yukon Gold potatoes
  • 1/2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup chicken stock
  • 1 Tbsp white wine vinegar

Directions:

Note: After about 20 minutes of roasting I had to turn my oven down to 375 because my smoke alarm hates high oven temperatures. You can do this too, but know that the chicken will take about 15 to 20 minutes longer to cook.

  1. In a small saucepan, set 1 1/2 cups water to boil. Place porcini mushrooms in a small bowl and pour the hot water over the mushrooms. Soak until well softened, 20 to 30 minutes. Lift the porcini out, rinse to remove any grit, then coarsely chop. Strain the soaking liquid through a sieve lined with a damp paper towel into a small saucepan and reserve.
  2. Preheat oven to 425 with a rack in the middle.
  3. Cook the shallots in 2 Tbsp oil with 1/4 tsp salt in a nonstick skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 7 minutes. Add porcini, chopped thyme, and 1/4 tsp pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, 2 minutes. Add 3 Tbsp Marsala and boil until most of the liquid has evaporated, then remove from heat.
  4. Add honey, thyme sprigs, remaining 2 Tbsp Marsala, and 1/4 tsp salt to the small saucepan of mushroom soaking liquid and boil until syrupy and reduced to about 3 Tbsp, 15 to 20 minutes. Discard thyme sprigs.
  5. Meanwhile, remove excess fat from chicken and pat dry. Season inside and out with a rounded tsp salt and 3/4 tsp pepper. Stuff cavity with mushroom mixture and tie legs with string.
  6. Roast chicken in a roasting pan for about 1 hour, until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the fleshy part of the thigh registers 170. About 5 minutes before the chicken is done, brush with all of the honey glaze. If glaze begins to get too dark before chicken is cooked through, loosely cover with foil.
  7. While chicken roasts, peel potatoes and cut into 1/2-inch pieces. In cleaned nonstick skillet, heat 3 Tbsp oil over medium heat, then add potatoes, stirring to coat. Stir in 1/4 cup water and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, 10 minutes. Remove lid and increase heat to medium-high. Add 1/2 tsp salt. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid has evaporated and potatoes are golden brown all over, about 20 minutes more. Transfer potatoes to a baking sheet.
  8. Transfer chicken to a cutting board and let rest 15 minutes. Turn off the oven and transfer baking sheet of potatoes to the oven to keep warm.
  9. Meanwhile, straddle the roasting pan across 2 burners and add flour. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring, 1 minute. Add chicken stock and vinegar, stirring and scraping up brown bits. Boil mixture until reduced by about a third, about 4 minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a gravy boat. If desired, skim some of the fat off the top of the gravy with a spoon, or use a fat separator.
  10. Discard kitchen string from the chicken. Scoop out the mushroom mixture into a bowl and stir in the potatoes. Serve with the chicken.

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