Food & Drink

Roast Chicken with Root Vegetables and Cider

For Christmas dinner, we like the refined, bold flavors of roasted chicken, nestled with winter root vegetables and sweet cider. This dish, enjoyed by the staff at New York’s Chanterelle restaurant, is a simple recipe for a rustic, elegant holiday feast.

Roast Chicken

Serves 4

This simple, comforting chicken dish will fill your home with the autumnal aroma of roasting sweet potatoes, parsnips, and apples. The sweet, earthy flavors of the cider and sturdy root vegetables complement one another perfectly, giving added character and depth of flavor to the bird. Serve with a simple green salad.

Ingredients

1 chicken (3½ pounds)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 firm, tart apples, such as Granny Smith, cored, peeled, and cut into 1-inch dice
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1-inch dice
1 medium onion, cut into 1-inch dice
1 large parsnip, peeled and cut into 1-inch rounds
2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch rounds
½ medium head cauliflower, cut into florets
Coarse (kosher) salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 cups apple cider

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.

2. Rinse the chicken, inside and out, under cold running water, removing any excess fat. Pat dry with paper towels. Place the chicken in a flameproof roasting pan large enough to hold it and the vegetables without crowding. Smear the chicken skin with the butter, then surround it with the apples and vegetables, sprinkle everything with salt and pepper, and pour in the cider.

3. Place the roasting pan in the oven and roast the chicken and vegetables until the apples have practically melted away, the vegetables are browned and tender, and the chicken juices run clear when a thigh is pricked with a fork, 1¼ to 1½ hours. Stir the vegetables halfway through the roasting time so they brown evenly.

4. Carefully remove the chicken to a platter. Using a slotted spoon, remove the vegetables and place them around the chicken; cover to keep warm. Set the roasting pan over high heat and bring the cider and roasting juices to a boil over high heat, scraping up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Cook, uncovered, until the liquid is reduced by half, 5 to 10 minutes.

5. Remove the pan from the heat, taste for seasoning, and pour the sauce into a gravy boat. Serve the sauce to accompany the chicken. Carve the chicken in the kitchen or at the table.

TIP: How to Render Chicken FatIf you make roast chicken or chicken stock fairly often, it takes little extra effort to have a supply of rendered chicken fat (schmaltz) on hand for use in recipes such as chopped chicken liver and borscht. There’s always surplus fat to be trimmed from whole chickens, especially from the neck, body cavity, and tail areas. I save the bits of fat in the freezer, adding to my cache until I have at least a cup or two. To render fat, defrost it slightly, cut into ½- or 1-inch pieces, and place them in a heavy skillet or saucepan over low heat. Add about ¼ cup water (to prevent the fat from sticking) and cook gently, stirring occasionally, until the fat has liquefied and the solids have shrunk and become crispy brown bits, about 10 to 15 minutes. Let the fat cool slightly before straining it through a fine-mesh strainer into a storage container with a tight-fitting cover. (In Yiddish the crunchy pieces left behind are called gribenes, and in the old days before cholesterol was declared the enemy they were considered quite a treat.) Store rendered fat in the refrigerator for a month or in the freezer for up to a year. To render duck or goose fat, follow the same procedure.

For more recipes like this, check out Staff Meals from Chanterelle by David Waltuck.