You know those dishes that you create without any plan and you find yourself surprised at how well they come out? Well, needless to say this is one of those dishes. And yes, despite being trained to know how to cook, chefs indeed have those moments of ah-hah, that’s delicious. It’s not like the roasting of chicken is a complicated process that requires the need of bells and whistles because it doesn’t. And that’s why we flock to it as our go-to meal when there is minimal time for fussy dinner preparation. Not that I make fussy meals or anything, cough.
Over the summer my wife and I visited Asheville, NC for the Food Blogger Forum. An event where food bloggers gather and discuss our passion for food, blogging, and the art of creating community. I received a little jar of what was labeled vegan spice. At first, I had no idea what the heck the stuff was or how I was going to properly utilize it to fit into our meals, but one night I saw the spice while in the midst of trying to decode what we were going to eat for dinner based upon the scant selection of ingredients in our fridge. If there’s anything I hate more than folding laundry, its trips to the grocery store once I’m already home for the evening.
I looked in the fridge and there it was staring at me, a whole bird, two sweet potatoes, three new red potatoes and some Mutsu apples from Chattanooga that I had just purchased at Whole Foods Market. Before I knew it, I had reached for the cast-iron skillet on the shelf and I set the chicken in the pan. After a brief moment of hesitation I placed the chicken back onto a cutting board and proceeded to cut it in half after realizing we probably won’t eat the whole thing. I turned the oven to 425 degrees. I seasoned both halves of the chicken with kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper, finely minced thyme, oregano and I tucked two pats of unsalted butter beneath the skin, set it aside. I rinsed the potatoes and apples, removed any eyes from the potatoes that didn’t look edible and cut them into chunks. Just in case you were wondering I cored the apples. I tossed the potatoes and apples in two teaspoons of the vegan spice, one tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, and a smidge of kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste.
I put the chicken in the center of the cast-iron skillet and nestled the potatoes and apples around it but being careful not to completely cover the skin, because crispy skin is the key to the perfect roasted chicken. I walked away and began to write this post while I waited for it to cook and for my wife to come home. The cooking time is somewhere between 45 min to an hour, of course this is subjective based upon your oven, so properly temp your chicken for a internal temperature of 165º. There may have been some Parks & Recreation in the backdrop, laugh-out-loud, because that show slays me! I’m so grateful for Netflix…sigh. But any-who, I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as the wife and I did. I’m already in need of ordering more of that vegan spice because I’ve been using it so often. You can order it here. Enjoy and I’d love to hear about some of your ah-ha dishes that turned out un-expectedly well.
I have to admit there is a soft spot in my heart for the fall. I adore the quilt of colors brought to us by the leaves aging. The rustling and crunch of your feet in the grass conjuring yesteryear’s thoughts of s’mores and diving into mountains of raked leaves.
Jenna’s been having an ovarian cyst issue that required moving along with some other abdomen problems due to a botched surgery from our past. We were told post-surgery that they found scar tissue from that surgery and a couple of fibroid that needed to be removed. If that wasn’t enough the doctor with this look of discontent said, ” if we were thinking of having children we would need to do so sooner than later.” (Well, good morning to you too.) was the initial thought that jumped into my head, but this wasn’t the doctors fault and we were already aware that the road to having children would not be that of an easy one. And this is OK with us. God has his own divine timing and though we are often impatient in waiting for things to unfold. We’re good with just enjoying each others company until then.
Don’t ask me what the correlation between scary waiting rooms and biscuits have to do with each other because I honestly don’t know. But I knew I had no idea of what to take to Nashville Food Bloggers CSA Potluck the following Sunday. And maybe this is what my brain does when in uneasy situations. It goes directly to the chamber of comfort foods I have stored away in my mind. These biscuits were practically an experiment of sorts.
