Valentine's Dinner: Roast Chicken & Brownies

FryBoy

New member
Had a wonderful Valentine's Day dinner at home with my wife last night. Menu was all her requests.

For the main course I made a Rosemary Roast Chicken with Onion-Garlic Gravy from the The San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook and served it with fresh steamed asparagus, corn muffins (frozen left overs) and a 2005 Beringer Vineyards "Sbragia Limited Release" Chardonnay.

Dessert was Brownies Cockaigne from an old edition of the Joy of Cooking, which for my money are perfect, with vanilla ice cream, of course.

I may have posted the recipes before , but the whole dinner was so good that I thought they deserved a repeat. Here they are, with my modifications and clarified instructions.

****************************************

ROSEMARY ROAST CHICKEN WITH ONION-GARLIC GRAVY

Chicken is roasted on a bed of onions and garlic in this recipe by Michael Bauer. When the bird is cooked through and golden, the vegetables are pureed with chicken stock to make a thick, rich gravy.

1 whole chicken (about 3½ to 4½ pounds)
1½ tablespoons olive oil
4 medium onions, cut in large chunks (3 really large onions will do)
1 lemon, cut in quarters, seeds removed
2 fresh rosemary sprigs (about 6 inches each)
8 whole garlic cloves, peeled
1½ cups chicken broth (unsalted canned is fine)
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees (yes, I mean 450).

Remove and discard the giblets, rinse the chicken, pat dry and remove excess fat from around the tail area.

Rub the chicken inside and out with ½ tablespoon of the olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper inside and out.

Stuff the cavity with about ½ to 1 of the chopped onions, 2 wedges of lemon, a sprig of rosemary, and 4 garlic cloves; close cavity with skewers or toothpicks and string to keep veggies inside.

Use a bit of the remaining olive oil to grease the bottom of a glass baking dish. Place the remaining onions and garlic in the dish. Drizzle the remaining oil over the onions.

Place the bird breast down on the onion mixture; squeeze juice of another quarter of the lemon over the chicken.

Roast for about 20 minutes per pound. Check the onion mixture; if it starts to blacken or stick, add a bit of the chicken broth. Note that browner onions make better gravy.

After 30 minutes, turn the chicken breast side up and add ¼ to ½ cup chicken broth to the onion mixture. Return pan to the oven and roast until the meat in the thickest part of the leg just loses its pinkness. Add a bit more of the chicken broth if onions start to dry out.

Remove the chicken to a platter.

Scrape the onion mixture into a medium sauce pan. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Add the leaves from the remaining rosemary (discard stem) to taste. Squeeze in the juice of the remaining lemon quarter. Puree with a hand blender, adding remaining broth if the gravy is too thick.

Bring pureed mixture to a boil to meld flavors.

Cut the chicken in serving pieces and serve with the gravy.

(NOTE: if you don’t have a hand blender, which is also called a wand or immersion blender, put onion mixture and other ingredients in a food processor or regular blender, puree, then transfer to sauce pan.)

********************************************

BROWNIES

2 ounces bittersweet chocolate
¼ cup butter (½ stick)
2 eggs (room temperature)
⅛ teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated white sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Grease 8-inch X 8-inch square or 9-inch round cake pan.

3. Break chocolate into pieces and put in glass measuring cup; add butter; microwave on high about 30 second, just until butter has melted; remove from microwave and stir; if chocolate has not melted completely, return to microwave for 10 seconds, then stir again; repeat until chocolate is just barely melted; set aside to cool (do not use while still hot).

4. Beat eggs & salt with whisk in large bowl until light and foamy.

5. Gradually add sugar to eggs, whisking well after each addition; beat until very smooth and thick, about 3 to 5 minutes (this is important!).

6. Add vanilla to egg mixture and whisk until incorporated.

7. Add cooled chocolate and butter mixture to egg mixture; fold together with a rubber spatula.

8. Before chocolate and egg mixtures are completely mixed together, add flour; continue folding.

9. Before flour is completely mixed in, add nuts; continue folding just until mixture is evenly colored.

10. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 25 minutes; center will appear crusty but will be quite soft; brownies are done when they just start to pull away from sides of pan.

11. Cool completely before cutting into bars.

********************************************
 

Maverick2272

Stewed Monkey
Super Site Supporter
Hmmm... which one do I eat more of? The chicken or the brownies!! LOL. That chicken sounds real good, and I like the sound of that gravy too!
 
Top