Alison Roman’s Crisp, Hot Roast Chicken with Leeks
For your Easter meal try Alison Roman’s crispy roast chicken, served with tender leeks as well as a tangy leek salsa verde.
Introduction
While there are a million ways to roast a bird, many of them wonderful, I find the ‘220°C (425°F) for about an hour’ technique produces the best version for nearly all my needs: golden-brown skin, crispy bits of chicken and still-juicy, tender breasts. There is no patting dry of the skin, no overnight seasoning, no wire rack required. It’s pretty bare-bones, straightforward and wonderful: a near-perfect one-skillet situation. The beauty of a roast chicken – and how I have come to think of it as a ‘pantry meal’ – is that you can (and I will!) add anything you have on hand to the skillet to roast alongside it. Potatoes, mushrooms, torn pieces of bread that become croutons: I’ve done it all. But it’s the long, elegant leek that excites me most. While roasting alongside the chicken, leeks become all at once softened and braised, crunchy and crackly – perhaps tasting better than the chicken itself. While you could stop here, serving this with a garlicky aioli, leek salsa verde (made from the tops of the leeks) and an assortment of whatever vegetables you can find makes this whole thing feel like a true event, a chicken worthy of your finest company or sweetest date night.
Ingredients
| 1 x 1.6–2 kg (3½–4½ lb) | chicken |
| kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper | |
| ½ | lemon, optional (see step 2 for alternatives) |
| 1 large | leek (or 2 smaller leeks) |
| 60 ml (2 fl oz/¼ cup) | olive oil, plus more as needed |
| ½ bunch | chives, finely chopped |
| 1 bunch | parsley, tender leaves and stems, finely chopped |
| 4 | anchovy fillets or 2 tbsp capers, drained, finely chopped |
| 2 | garlic cloves, finely grated |
| 1–2 tbsp | white wine vinegar or white distilled vinegar or fresh lemon juice, plus more |
| Optional but recommended for the experience | |
|---|---|
| small potatoes, boiled until tender | |
| asparagus or green beans, blanched until al dente | |
| radishes, snap peas, crunchy lettuces or sliced fennel, raw | |
| a whole or half tin of | anchovies |
| Aioli (page 45 of Something From Nothing) |
Method
Preheat the oven to 220°C (425°F).
Place the chicken on a baking tray or in a large cast-iron skillet. Season with salt and lots of pepper. If you happen to have a half a lemon, a halved head of garlic, a quartered onion or some rogue sprigs of herbs, you can stuff the cavity with those things, but if you don’t, I wouldn’t sweat it. Tie (or don’t tie) your chicken legs together in a casual truss.
Remove the darkest green part of the leek. (Set aside – we’re going to eat it.) Quarter the remaining white and light-green parts lengthways and give them a rinse. (If you’re using small leeks, just halve them lengthways.) Lay the leeks beside the chicken, encouraging the layers to separate – if they’re feeling long or large, simply bend them to curve around the chicken and skillet to make them fit. Drizzle the whole thing(leeks, chicken) with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Place the chicken into the oven and don’t look at it for at least 35 minutes. No peeking, no touching, no basting, no turning, no fussing.
After 35 minutes, you can peek – it should not be ‘there’ yet. You can baste or rotate the pan if you like, but keep roasting for another 20–25 minutes. You’re looking for deeply browned chicken skin and a combination of entirely tender, almost silky braised leeks coupled with crispy, dark, frizzled leeks. I like mine almost burned, zero regrets.(If you’re nervous about them getting a little dark before the chicken is ready, well, maybe this is not the chicken dish for you.)
While the chicken is roasting and the leeks are almost burning, make use of the other part of the leek, the part we typically throw away (unless you’re making Potato Leek Soup, page 73 of Something From Nothing). Finely chop the dark-green part of the leek and place it in a small bowl. Add the chives, parsley, anchovies and garlic. Season with salt and pepper, the vinegar or fresh lemon juice, and enough olive oil to make it saucy and spoonable. This should taste oniony, briny, bright, and extremely GREEN. Let it sit while your chicken finishes roasting.
Once your chicken is roasted to perfection, so golden brown you can hardly stand it, remove it from the oven and let it hang out on your counter in the vessel it was roasted in for 5–10 minutes.
When it’s time to eat, place all your vegetables (the blanched, the boiled, the raw, the sliced) onto a large plate. If you opened a tin of anchovies for the sauce, place the tin on or next to the plate, too.
Here’s a fun chicken tip: Before carving the chicken, tilt the bird upright in whatever vessel it was roasted in to catch all the juices (so they don’t run all over your cutting board). Then, slice the legs away from the body of the bird, to catch even more juices. Then transfer the chicken to a cutting board to carve. Once carved, transfer to a large plate or serving platter, top with your fantastic leeks and spoon any chicken drippings/juice over the whole thing.
Serve with your leek salsa verde, aioli and whatever vegetables of your choosing. Dip the chicken into both sauces, followed by a perfect little boiled potato. Place an anchovy on a radish; dip that in the aioli. Snack on a lettuce. Drag a slice of chicken through the juices that have pooled on the bottom of the plate. Have a sip of wine, wish you had an artichoke, feel full and happy and grateful for all the things you have ,but today, especially for that chicken
Note: This is also a nice opportunity to use the fun spring alliums, like green garlic, wild garlic or garlic scapes.
Do ahead: Leek salsa verde can be made a day ahead, stored wrapped and refrigerate.
Reviews
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