Herb and Chili Flake Buttered Chicken

Recently Malissa and her family were generous enough to host my family for a couple of nights while our townhome association was making a clusterfrack of our little community. I thanked them the only way I knew how: with a bounty of savory foods.  They enjoyed the roast chicken so much Malissa asked for the recipe and so I thought I’d share it all with you as well.

Please don’t be scared off by the word “chili” if you have a sensitive palate.  The chilli flakes aren’t enough to add heat, just a savory flavor that complements the herbs wonderfully.   This recipe calls for one lemon, but it’s not the star of the show – it just brightens the herbs a bit.  Yes, you see it’s all about the herbs here, so make sure you have some lovely fresh herbs on hand.  Turning the chicken halfway through cooking keeps it nice and moist, so the lean breasts don’t get dried out baking under the element for two hours.

You will need:

• 1 chicken (approx. 5 lbs)
• 5 tbsp. butter (of course I used vegan margarine)
• 1 tbsp. chili flakes
• 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• couple sprigs fresh thyme leaves, roughly chopped (reserve rest of bunch for stuffing cavity)
• couple sprigs fresh sage leaves, roughly chopped (reserve rest of bunch for stuffing cavity)
• 1 lemon

Here’s how I put it together:

First, I mixed with a fork the butter, chili flakes, garlic powder, salt, thyme and sage.

To put the butter on the flesh, I pulled up the skin covering the breasts and spread it under the skin.

If you look closely here, you can see the chili flakes and herbs under the skin:

Then I made a few slits in the skin of the thighs and wings and rubbed the butter mixture up under the skin.  Next I sliced open a lemon, squeezed and rubbed the juice of 1/2 the lemon over the skin of the chicken, tossed the rest of the thyme sprigs and sage leaves with the lemon halves in the cavity and it was ready to bake.

Up until this point I had been winging it (no pun intended), but I needed a little guidance on cooking times and temps.  I did a Food Blog Search and came up with this Honey Glazed Lemon Roast Chicken recipe from Simply Recipes.  The temps and times worked great for my chili buttered chicken.  The skin was perfectly crispy and the meat was visibly juicy as I carved it.

I served the chicken with pearled cous cous cooked in half chicken drippings/half water (a hit with the kids); green and yellow roasted zucchini; and mache and avocado salad with balsamic fig vinegarette.

Carving Roast Chicken

Once again I find myself saying that maybe we should just change the name of this blog to “Alton Brown Fan Club.”

A couple nights ago I roasted a beautiful herb and chili flake buttered chicken. After I was tired from spending hours in the kitchen chopping, dicing and baking, I asked if anyone would like to “do the honors” of slicing the bird. The room went silent. And so, I went to work. To be honest, I was glad it was me carving it. Even though it wasn’t my best work, I was glad it was done properly.  It breaks my heart to see a perfectly roasted chicken get butchered haplessly.

I certainly wasn’t born with a knack for butchering – I was actually born with an affinity for vegetarianism. But one day I watched this episode of Good Eats with a creative explanation of chicken carving utilizing a model dinosaur (minute 4:30 in the video):

http://www.youtube.com/v/Dbc1aW5C1W0&hl=en&fs=1&

Then, I wanted to practice. I just happened to have signed up to cook a meal for Tent City 4 with my church that week and we had 15 chickens to butcher. I learned that repetition is the key to confidence. I shall never fear carving again.