Buttermilk Marinated Roast Chicken With All the Trimmings!

 It's a cloudy day here in BC and we've had some much needed rain - finally!  When August hits, and Fall is near after a long hot summer, roasting a chicken is perfect.  You can keep your roast chicken super simple, or take it to the next French Bistro level.  If you'd like to just marinate your chicken in the buttermilk and salt recipe below, drizzle a little olive oil over it, and roast,  it will be fabulous.  However, I've stuffed my roast chickens with homemade croutons (I read this in the cookbook Tasting Paris) and my family literally hovers over the pan when the chicken is resting to pluck out a chicken juice soaked or crunchy crouton to devour.  Here is our Sunday dinner tonight, bon appetit!

Buttermilk Brined Roast Chicken

425 degree oven for 1 1/2 hours

24 hours marinating prior to cooking

The 24 hour Marinade

1 liter buttermilk

1 4 ½-5 lb. roasting chicken

2 tablespoons kosher salt, or 4 tbsp. table salt

Olive oil 

Marinate chicken in buttermilk and salt using a big Ziplock bag for 24 hours in refrigerator. I double bag so no leakage.  After 24 hours….

Take chicken out of bag, rinse and dry.  I put paper towel under it and dried letting it dry for 15 minutes.  If you don’t rinse buttermilk, it will burn easily in the oven.

Optional:  If you want, mix 4 tbsp. butter with ¼ chopped herbs including some garlic powder, roll into 4 little disks and put underneath the skin of the chicken with 4 lemon slices and more herbs like whole leaf basil if you like. 

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Stuff chicken cavity with homemade 2 cups of croutons and put more croutons underneath chicken too if you like. I put larger slices of homemade croutons under chickens about 8 larger pieces each.  (I roasted two chickens.) Now pop into oven for 1 ½ hours.  Cover for 1 hour and take lid or tin foil off last ½ hour to brown. Keep an eye on it so it doesn’t burn. If it is getting too brown, put lid over it again.  When done.

Check chicken leg, juices will run clear. 

Let rest for 20 – 60 minutes.  After carving you can put some of the croutons back in oven to re-toast with all the delicious chicken juices in it!

Tomatoes Provencal

Oven 400 degrees, 15-20 minutes

1 ½ cups fresh bread crumbs, ¼ cup Parmesan cheese, 1 tbsp. freshly grated lemon zest, few sprigs of Thyme, 2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil, course salt and black pepper then  6 tomatoes, ¼ inch sliced. Lightly oil a baking dish and layer/over-lap tomatoes. Sprinkle tomatoes with salt and pepper then mix up dry ingredients and spoon over tomatoes.  Bake for 15-20  minutes under broiler.

Smashed Potatoes with Pea Shoots and Vinaigrette 

Oven 375 degrees, 45 minutes.

4 cups of baby potatoes, 3 cups broccoli, 2 handfuls of spinach, ½ red onion either sliced thin, or ½ cup diced, 2 green onions sliced.

Boil baby potatoes until just tender. Gently put into colander to drain and cool down for about 15 minutes.  Pam spray a cookie sheet/pan and roll potatoes out on pan.  Using a small glass or cup, gently smoosh each potato to ½ it’s width.  Then season with herbs you like and a pinch of salt and pepper.  Drizzle a few tablespoons of olive oil over all the potatoes.  Don’t saturate, just a little bit.  Then put into the oven for ½ hour at 375 degrees.  Then add the broccoli and stir veggies around.  Put in for about another 15 minutes.  In a separate bowl add 2 or more handfuls of spinach and the onion.  When you take potato and broccoli out of the oven, put over spinach and onion mixture and toss.  The spinach will wilt a bit.  Then add 1/8^th cup of  your favorite vinaigrette  such as red wine or balsamic or make your own and toss again. Garnish with chopped green onion and pea shoots!

Grandpa Herrod's Festive Fruit Salad Over Ice Cream

My Grandpa Herrod would have been 102 this month.  Holy Wow!  Thought I’d share one of the recipes for a wonderful family dessert he gave me.

1 cantaloupe, 1 honeydew melon, 1 basket of strawberries, 1 cup sparkling rose, 1 tsp. vanilla, 4 tsp. sugar,

Cube honeydew and cantaloupe, slice strawberries and put into a Tupperware.  Add 4 tsp. sugar, 1 cup sparkling rose (or enough to cover), add vanilla, and mix.  Put in refrigerator for three hours to marinate. Serve your deliciously drunken festive fruit over ice cream.  Very delish!