Hurry-Up-And-Wait Roast Chicken with tiny red potatoes and onions

Hurry-Up-And-Wait Roast Chicken with tiny red potatoes and onions

 

I got fired up when I noticed this week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe choice was Hurry-Up-And-Wait Roast Chicken

Even more so by Dorie’s explanation, “In France, a roast chicken is a beloved staple — the most traditional dish for Sunday lunch. Yet the country’s little secret is that often home cooks don’t even roast the birds themselves: they buy them hot off the butcher’s rotisserie.”

This is when I became super excited. What Dorie was asking us to do, I thought, was to scout out the best tasting rotisserie chicken available. A slam dunk for me since my local Whole Foods features a free-range, vegetarian fed, all natural rotisserie chicken for $8.99. On Wednesday, it’s on sale. Save two dollars. Cluck. Cluck.

“Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises.”    Samuel Butler

“Still,” Dorie continued, “I’ve never met a French cook who can’t roast a chicken.”

This time Mr. Butler got it wrong. Not only were we going to roast our own chicken this week, Dorie had decided the best method and the one we would use was concocted by France’s greatest living chef, Joël Robuchon. My last encounter with Chef Robuchon was in February when I sat at the counter of his dazzling Las Vegas diner, L’Atelier. Since that evening of fine dining cost me $473.48, I knew I could wave au revoir to the $6.99 WF’s roast chicken. (Yes, I am currently hyperventilating again as I write this paragraph.)

My last encounter with Joël Robochon, France's greatest living chef ............

My last encounter with Joël Robochon, France’s greatest living chef …………

However, a chubby roast chicken provided a perfect meals-with-protein schedule for this busy Halloween week, one that included baking two more Marie-Hélène Apple Cakes for dinners with friends and a double batch of This Skinny Chick Can Bake’s White Chocolate Monster Munch for all the ghouls, goblins and ghosts who work here at The Gant. (Thank you, Liz Berg.)

A delicious way to end a lovely dinner - with  Marie Hélène's Apple Cake

A delicious way to end a lovely dinner – with Marie Hélène’s Apple Cake

White Chocolate Monster Munch - (in the spirit of full disclosure, this snack is very additive)

White Chocolate Monster Munch – (in the spirit of full disclosure, this snack is very additive)

Halloween means doubling down on the White Chocolate Monster Munch snack recipe for the staff at The Gant (where I live).

Halloween means doubling down on the White Chocolate Monster Munch snack recipe for the staff at The Gant (where I live). 

The trick to a remarkably moist chick, according to Dorie, is to put it through some, well, let’s call ’em  yoga positions during its 60 minutes, 450 degree roasting period. While, admittedly, there are indignities done to the chicken throughout this process, remember that this bird is not alive to realize it. It’s suffering has already happened.

Yoga Position One -  Warrior Pose

Yoga Position One – Warrior Pose

First, lay the chicken on its side for 25 minutes. Then, turn the bird over on its other side for another 25 minutes. For the final 10 minutes, flip it on its back to roast breast side up. Now are you ready for the headstand? Transfer the chicken breast side down to the platter and lift the chicken’s tail in the air! Cover with foil and let the exhausted bird stand on its head (so to speak) for another 10 minutes.

Yoga Position Three - Modified Corpse Pose

Yoga Position Three – Modified Corpse Pose

Yoga Position Four - Downward Facing Dog

Yoga Position Four – Downward Facing Dog

The result, my friends, is a superb, delicious and remarkably moist roast chicken. For added flavor, all I did prior to roasting was to shake some salt, pepper and Pensey’s Ruth Ann’s Muskego Ave. Chicken & Fish Seasoning on the little guy. I also slipped some garlic butter and thyme leaves under the skin, pressing and pushing gently to coat the breast meat. Here’s the recipe.

“Namaste.”

French Fridays with Dorie, is an international cooking group working its way through Dorie Greenspan’s latest cookbook “Around My French Table”.  If you would like to see how my colleagues roasted their chickens this week, go to our FFWD link.