Roast chicken dinner done Italian style

The other day Mom wasn’t feeling well and I guess Geri Burnett didn’t trust either Dad or I to make her something delicious so she brought over a roast chicken dinner which none of us had eaten in a long time.

So simple and delicious with the chicken surrounded by onions, carrots and new potatoes. She also added lemon slices and rosemary. We ate every bite.

I don’t know why I never think of making a simple roast chicken dinner. We’ve all got our own ways of doing it, but here is an Italian way of making it that also sounds good.

I don’t use a lot of leeks but onions would also work. And I’m not sure dry-packed olives are available in town, but I’d use Kalamata olives anyway, which are available here.

This recipe below comes from Nigella Lawson which is why the recipe instructions sound so flowery.

Italian Roast Chicken with Peppers and Olives

1 whole chicken

1 lemon (cut in half)

4 sprigs fresh rosemary

3 leeks (washed and trimmed)

2 red bell peppers

1 orange bell pepper

1 yellow bell pepper

2/3 cup pitted dry-packed black olives

1/4 cup olive oil

Kosher salt (to taste)

Black pepper (to taste)

Preheat the oven to 350. Put chicken in a roasting tin and put the lemon halves and two of the rosemary sprigs into the chicken’s cavity.

Cut each leek into three logs, then slice lengthwise and add to the tin. Remove the core and seeds of the peppers and slice them into strips. Tumble in the olives, and pour the olive oil, mostly over the vegetables but a little over the chicken, too. Add the remaining rosemary sprigs to the vegetables, along with some kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste, and gently toss the vegetables about to help coat them with the oil and make sure everything is well mixed up.

Sprinkle some kosher salt over the chicken and put it in the oven for about 1-1¼ hours, by which time the chicken should be cooked through, and its juices running clear. The vegetables should be tender by now, too, and some of the leeks will be a light-brown in parts.

Remove the chicken to a carving board and, while it rests (for about 10 minutes), pop the pan of vegetables back in the oven, switching the oven off as you do so.

Cut the chicken up in chunks, transferring the pieces to a large platter. Now take the pan back out of the oven and remove the vegetables to the large platter and pour over it all the bronze, highly-flavored juices that have collected in the pan.

—kwc—

Here’s a copycat recipe for Long John Silver’s Batter which you could use on fish or shrimp or mostly likely anything fried. I stole this recipe from Charlotte Christian.

LJS Batter

3/4 cup flour

2 tbsp cornstarch

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt 3/4 cup water

3/4 cup water

Sift dry ingredients. Add water and mix well. Use to coat fish or chicken fillets. Cover the fish completely. Deep fry until a nice golden brown.