Rosemary Chicken Dinner

Years ago I picked up a cooking magazine that featured a "French roast chicken dinner" on the cover.  I don't know if I ever cooked the dish according to that recipe or not, but I do know that the ideas took root and became one of my "go to" dinners. 

This is one of those mindless throw-it-all-in-the-oven dinners that fills your home with heady aromas, hits the table looking like a million bucks and causes that most sought after of responses ... the pause, the groan, and then the deep silence of what our family calls "happy eating sounds."

So, without further ado, I present to you my Rosemary Chicken.

The Proportions
1 chicken, cut-up (or one cut up chicken, however you like to deal with it)
4 medium sized russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 2 inch chunks
1 large white onion, minced
2 tsp salt
2 tsp black pepper
2 Tbs fresh rosemary
1 Cup white wine

The Method
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix minced onion, salt, pepper, potato chunks and chicken pieces together in a large oven proof pan.
Bake chicken and potatoes at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, or until chicken is just starting to brown.
Add white wine to chicken and cover with foil.
Lower oven temperature to 350 degrees.
Bake for 30 - 45 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. 
Remove foil.
Bake for another 20 minutes or until chicken is a deep golden brown and sauce has reduced.

The Tips
Can we talk chicken here for a minute?  The spongy white @#$% sold in our grocery stores isn't worth the price (no matter how low) you pay.  It's crammed with pesticides, antibiotics and hormones but even worse - it's tasteless!  It's been processed by being submerged in ice cold water until it's completely water logged and then frozen for shipping.  Is it any wonder that it resembles its styrofoam packing?  Even if you can't afford or find true free range organic hens, I do recommend that you seek out something like Smart Chicken that is air chilled instead of drowned in dirty water.  It really will make a difference.  By the way, if you haven't ever worked with a "real" chicken before?  Yes, the fat is supposed to be bright yellow, the breast meat is supposed to be a dark pink and the thighs really are meant to by that ruby color.

So ... anyway.  Buy good chicken.  Please.

Fresh herbs.  I'm not even going to say more.  Except that sure, I've made this dish with dried rosemary any number of times.  It's yummy.  Fresh herbs are just better, that's all.

Potatoes?  I listed 4 russet potatoes because that's what I had when I made this tonight.  There were sort of sad so I peeled them.  It could just as easily be 8 red skins, skins on and halved.  Or 12 baby potatoes.  Or whatever floats your potato boat.  It's going to get coated in chicken fat, salt, pepper, rosemary and white wine.  It's kind of hard to go wrong.

A few last thoughts - make sure that your baking dish is large enough that the potatoes and chicken fit in a single layer without being too crowded.  I use a huge skillet that is also known as my chicken frying skillet (we'll get to that one day).  I got it from my Mom.  She got it from her Dad.  He made it, or so the story goes.

You can substitute chicken stock for the white wine if you prefer not to cook with alcohol (although all the alcoholic content bubbles off).  Just remember one thing.  Skip or significantly lower the amount of salt you use if you're using stock in place of wine.  It's best to realize you don't have any white wine in the house after all BEFORE you add the salt ... just ask my son Michael.  He'll take great delight in telling you exactly how inedible the end results are if you don't adjust the salt for using stock instead of wine!