Marcella Hazan’s Rosemary Roasted Chickens (Pollo arrosto al forno con rosmarino) with Roasted Veget

At first reading this, you may wonder, who the hell is Marcella Hazan? Don’t be ashamed if you have never heard the name Marcella Hazan which honestly sounds like it could be the name of a silent film gypsy or sorceress. In real life, she was a maverick of Italian cooking and taught people how to cook true Italian food since the late 60’s.

The original chicken recipe is estimated for four people but I doubled it because even though I cook for four people, two of them, meaning my brother and my dad have the appetite of an entire family, so as a heads up, I’m letting everyone know, I’ll frequently double on recipes to have plenty of leftovers, but if you wish to just make food for only four people, in this particular case, you can scale it down to half the ingredients.

The roasted vegetables are decidedly not Italian and can be anything that is available at the moment, from cauliflower to broccoli to parsnips or turnips or other kinds of squash or bell peppers or even beets but I used potatoes, carrots, Mexican squash and pasilla chile because they are inexpensive and readily available to me. They are treated very simply by getting a little smear in oil, salt and pepper. They also look like too much food but trust me, it’s good to make a lot because somehow they disappear and people barely notice they are eating loads of veggies.

After the chicken is carved and all the meaty pieces have been consumed, you’ll have two nice, fatty, bony roasted chicken carcasses to make stock with, which is fantastic, because nothing at all will be wasted.

Later, after the chicken is all said and done, I’ll share my chicken stock recipe that will turn into minestrone later in the week.

And now, the recipes …

Rosemary Roasted Chickens

For 4 to 6 people

INGREDIENTS

6 cloves garlic, peeled

2 heaping teaspoons dried or fresh chopped rosemary leaves

2 chickens weighing about two to four pounds each, washed and thoroughly dried in a towel

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper, eight to ten twists of the mill

½ vegetable oil

6 tbsp. butter(optional)

PROCEDURE

1. Preheat the oven to 375°.

2. Put the garlic and half the rosemary into the bird’s cavity. Add a large pinch of salt and a few grindings of pepper.

3. Rub about half the oil over the outside of the chickens, sprinkle liberally with salt, pepper and the rest of the rosemary. Dot the chickens with three tablespoons of butter each, if using, to help develop a nice browned bird.

4. Put the chickens and a little bit of oil (about ¼ cup) in a roasting pan lined with aluminum foil (the dull side facing upward) or parchment paper and place in the oven. Turn the chicken and baste it with its fat and cooking juices about every 20 minutes. Cook for about one hour to an hour and a half, depending on the slowness of your oven, or until the skin is nicely browned. You can check for doneness by gently piercing the skin between the leg and the thigh with a knife, and if the juices run clear*, it’s done.

*It’s tough to actually see the color of juice as it dribbles away into your pan but a sure-fire way to actually see the color of it is to put a napkin right at the point where you pricked the chicken so it absorbs some of the liquid and you see what color it is.

Roasted Vegetables

For 4 to 6 people

INGREDIENTS

4 medium Mexican or Italian squash, cut into fourths

2 pasilla chiles, seeded and chopped into 2’’ chunks

18 small potatoes, cut in half, or 4 big potatoes cut in 1’’ chunks

8 to 10 carrots, cut into ½ ‘’ thick matchsticks

About ¼ cup vegetable oil

Sea salt

Freshly milled black pepper

PROCEDURE

1. Preheat oven to 375°

2. Place each vegetable in a different bowl. Drizzle them with the oil and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Toss to coat everything.

3. Place the potatoes* first on a big parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for about 45 minutes, until slightly crisp

4. While the potatoes are roasting, after about 15 minutes, add the carrots to the baking sheet with the potatoes and toss, so they roast for about 30 minutes.

5. At the last 20 minutes for potatoes and carrots, add the squash and chiles so they roast too but watch these closely because you don’t want your squash to turn into mush. Serve.

*If you want rosemary roasted potatoes, add a teaspoon of chopped rosemary to the mix and toss to coat.

#chicken #roastedvegetables #pollo