Safest Helicopter

I am a butcher in training, a great eater and an avid cook for the people I love. This blog is my documentation of what I cook and kitchen lessons I am constantly learning.

Herb Roasted Chicken with Wild Rice

Usually when I roast chicken I keep it simple and just use salt.  A lot of salt.  If it’s good enough for Thomas Keller then it’s good enough for me and there’s no doubt that you get the most insanely crispy and wonderful skin when you roast it this way.  After seeing this really beautiful photo on my friend Echo’s blog  of two whole chickens covered in herbs though, I knew I wanted to do something different this time.  

After asking around about different ways people roast chicken I decided to make a compound butter full of herbs and garlic and smoosh it under the skin of the chicken and on the top of the skin as well.  I used 4 tbsp of butter, a few cloves of minced garlic, fresh chopped rosemary and parsley, and this salt that I got from work that is full of dried aromatic flowers like chamomile, lavender and marigold.  Then I poked a bunch of holes in a lemon with a fork and put it in the cavity of the chicken as well as some fresh sprigs of rosemary.

My friend Eli picked the carcass clean after we had all eaten.  Chicken is always best straight off the bone, I don’t even know why I bother to carve it.  I should just set it in the middle of the table and have everyone use their fingers to pull off their favorite parts.  The cook always gets the oysters, right? 

For a side dish I made wild rice and then added in the drippings from the chicken as well as some pitted castelvetrano olives, pitted cherries, toasted almonds and some goat cheese crumbled on top.  Then I proceeded to eat all of the remaining cherries because they are so so so good.  Jesse and I have probably been going through about 2 pounds of cherries every week and I’m going to be so devastated when they’re out of season.  Strawberries, cherries and peaches are making up a big part of our diets right now and they make up some of the best eating we do.

Full disclosure, I am totally hungover from all the wine we drank last night so perhaps I’m missing my usual pep.  You can only convey so much energy when your head is in a 400 lb vice made entirely out of wine bottles.  Bear with me folks.

With that said…there you have it! Roast chicken!  

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