Winner Winner Chicken Dinner
Chicken Broth for the Soul
I started to draft my Friday Five, the weekly digest of five things that will bring you some combination of joy, comfort, and relief, which was supposed to lead with a recipe for the best roast chicken I’ve ever had. I quickly realized I had so too much to say about this chicken, so you’re getting a standalone post on it. Congratulations!
Helen Rosner is a brilliant food writer and editor, and one of my favorite people to follow on Twitter. Last year, in Season One of Quarantine, she tweeted about roasting a chicken over cabbage, and I’ve been consumed by the thought of this ever since.
A few weeks after these tweets, Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen (also moved by Helen’s chicken tweets) wrote up the recipe for this roast chicken with schmaltzy cabbage. Nearly two years later, I got around to trying it after finally conquering my fears of roasting a chicken in my apartment’s dinky oven.
This recipe is perfection. It is simple, it is flavorful, it is straightforward and easy to follow and most importantly the end result is DIVINE. Before I can even get to the chicken, you need to see the before and after of the cabbage (a phrase never written before), which gives me the energy of a rom-com where the nerdy character removes her glasses and takes her hair down, suddenly becoming the sexiest woman alive. That’s what’s happening here: the chicken drippings and fat transform the cabbage into something unrecognizable. An instant makeover from bland brassica (a euphemism for basic b****) to caramelized, sweet goodness. It’s soft, it’s savory, it’s tender, it melts in your mouth. Sexiest cabbage alive!
I didn’t forget about the chicken, either, which turned out beautifully tender with crispy, salty skin. The leftovers are still just as good! I want to make sandwiches, salads, bowls, and soup with this chicken. I want to plan our future together! If it isn’t abundantly clear by now, my anxiety around roast chicken is far gone and I plan to make this recipe very often. Make it for yourself or someone you love (or someone you want to fall in love with you!) and see what happens. It’s magic.
Bonus recipe + something you really don’t need to know about me: My sense of fulfillment and worth peaks when I’m making use of leftover food scraps, like I’m Strega Nonna or the protagonists of Stone Soup. Accordingly, all of the roasted bones went into a double stock, another incredible recipe I’ve learned from Helen. Use store-bought stock instead of water and give yourself double the flavor.
You should see me (Ed Note: you absolutely shouldn’t) when I’m standing over a pot of stock — you can’t tell me nothing. In that moment, I am the CEO of the Stock Market. In that moment, I am living in a medieval fairytale where I’m both hunter and gatherer, providing vital and delicious sustenance for my community. Anyway, the double stock made my whole apartment smell like the inside of a Costco Rotisserie Oven, my dream candle scent. For the first round of leftovers, I paired the chicken with orzo cooked in the stock, which turned out deliciously savory and buttery beyond my expectations. And in that moment, I swear I was infinite.
You deserve flavorful stocks (and bonds). And sexy cabbage.
See you on Friday,
Roya