One Simple Roast Chicken = At Least Three Dinners

It's the dinner that keeps on giving. Not just a single feast-like meal, roast chicken fits in the category of those magical dinners that, if you can whisk away the platter before there are just scraps left, you've got the makings for at least two more meals, not to mention a decent lunch. And even with just a few scraps left over you can have a big pot of soup and enough stock for risotto.

You can see where I'm going here.

Say you make a roast chicken for your Sunday dinner (left). (Shopping hint: I always buy the biggest one in the case because there's a better chance for leftovers, and it only takes a few minutes longer to cook.) After it's been ripped apart by your ravenous family/fellow diners and they've gone off to their postprandial pursuits, take the plates into the kitchen. Scrape the bones into a pot along with any innards that came with the chicken. Then pull off the meat from any pieces left on the platter, scraping the bones into the aforementioned pot.

Now it's time to attack the carcass with your hands, pulling off even smaller shreds and adding it to your growing pile of meaty bits. Break the carcass in half—this is super easy once all the meat is gone—and put it in the pot. Add water to cover the carcass and put it on the stove to simmer for about an hour (this can be done anytime, really—just put the pot in the fridge until you've got an hour to make the stock). Notice I don't add any other vegetables to make the stock…I like to add those when I'm making whatever the final dish calls for. Put the leftover meat in the fridge.

So what do you have? Well, you'll probably come away with two to three quarts of stock once the bones have been strained off, which you can freeze for soups, risottos or whatever other quickie dinner you choose to make later in the week. Depending on how much meat I've yanked from the mouths of my family and scavenged from the carcass, I usually get upwards of a couple of cups of meat or maybe more. It's enough to throw in a pot of chicken soup, a chicken pot pie or a risotto, with perhaps enough left for a chicken curry sandwich for lunch.

As for that first, lovely roast chicken dinner, if you make the recipe below, in 90 minutes you'll have a one-pot meal, if you count the carrots as your vegetable. Which, of course, I do.

Roasted Chicken with Root Vegetables

3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 carrots, halved and cut in 1/4" slices
3 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1 tsp. dried thyme
3-4 c. root vegetables like sweet potatoes, yams, squash, parsnips, potatoes, turnips, etc.
1 roasting chicken or large fryer
1/2 c. white wine or dry vermouth
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375°. Pull the chicken out the fridge, removing any wrapping, and let it sit on the counter on a couple of paper towels to come to room temperature.

Pour 2 Tbsp. oil into a large frying pan over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Add onions and sauté until translucent. Add carrots and sauté till tender, then add garlic and sauté briefly. Turn off heat and stir in the thyme and root vegetables. Put mixture in 9" by 12" Pyrex casserole dish. Pour wine over vegetables.

Rub chicken with remaining 1 Tbsp. oil and throw 1 tsp. or so salt into the cavity and place the chicken on its side on top of the vegetables. Place in oven and roast for 25 minutes. Remove from oven, turn chicken on its other side and roast for another 25 minutes. Remove from oven, turn chicken so it is breast-side up, baste with pan juices and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast another 15 minutes, remove and baste, then roast a final 20 minutes or, for our tastes, until an instant-read thermometer reads 150° on the inside of the lower thigh and the inner side of the breast next to the rib cage. Remove from oven, allow to rest for 10 minutes. Cut it into pieces, removing the breasts whole and slicing them crosswise.

Roasted Chicken: Variations on a Theme

Roasted chicken is, without question, one of the top two favorites for dinner around our house. Simple, delicious, satisfying and relatively quick to put on the table, it's both a company-worthy entree and a warming mid-week meal. If you buy a big enough bird, you might have enough left over to make a pot pie, soup or hearty chicken salad. Plus the carcass is terrific for stock.

James Beard is my go-to guy in terms of method, the chicken roasting on a bed of sautéed vegetables. Which means that they gradually roast in the fat and juices from the bird, a brilliant idea that provides a ready-made side dish from the vegetables and a killer base for gravy from the juices.

The other night I was getting ready to roast a chicken and, instead of mashing potatoes, I was going to roast some delicata squash that had been sitting around waiting to be of service. That's when the lightbulb went off—you've no doubt already guessed this, but I can be a little slow sometimes—and I chopped up onion and garlic, gave it a quick sauté, then combined it with the squash.

The rest, as they say, is history…and something I'm going to keep playing with using other vegetables. Stay tuned!

Roasted Chicken with Squash

3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 onion, roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped fine
3 small delicata squash, seeded and cut in 1/2" cubes, about 3 cups or so*
1/2 c. white wine or dry vermouth
1 roasting chicken
1/2 lemon
Handful of fresh herbs (sage, rosemary, thyme or tarragon)
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Pour 2 Tbsp. oil into a frying pan and saute onions, carrots and celery (or whatever vegetables you might have) till slightly tender but not fully cooked. Place in mixing bowl with cubed squash and combine. Put squash mixture in 9" by 12" Pyrex casserole dish. Pour wine over vegetables.

Rub chicken with remaining 1 Tbsp. oil, throw 1 tsp. or so salt and the lemon and herbs into the cavity and place the chicken on its side on top of the vegetables. Place in oven and roast for 25 minutes. Remove from oven, turn chicken on its other side and roast for another 25 minutes. Remove from oven, turn chicken so it is breast-side up, baste with pan juices and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast another 15 minutes, remove and baste, then roast a final 20 minutes or, for our tastes, until an instant-read thermometer reads 160 degrees on the inside of the lower thigh. Remove from oven, allow to rest for 10 minutes. We cut it into pieces, but the breasts we remove whole and slice crosswise.

* The skin of delicatas is thin, so don't bother peeling it…just eat as is. Other winter squash would work just as well, but peel them before cubing.

Show Off Those Gams!

I grew up in a meat-and-potatoes mid-century American family, with the flow of beef only occasionally interrupted by a pork chop or a casserole. Though to her credit my mother was one of the first to make tacos and even fry the tortillas…no pre-folded, packaged versions for her!

The first time I remember having a roasted chicken was at my brother's, and I was dumbfounded. Not only was it one of the most mouthwateringly delicious meals I'd ever had, it was astonishingly simple to cook…you couldn't even call it a recipe, it was so basic. Needless to say, we have it regularly now, both roasted in the oven and over a wood fire on the grill.

I try to spare Dave the discomfort of standing outside in the cold wind and rain at this time of year…even though he stubbornly insists on grilling the turkey every November…and the other night I was craving roast chicken with root veggies. It occurred to me that chicken legs might work the same as whole chicken and ought to be slightly faster. I'd done something like it a couple of years before, but what I had in mind for tonight was much simpler.

A trip to the store, a little chopping, and an hour later dinner was ready. This is definitely a meal that could help get us through the winter in fine form.

Roasted Whole Chicken Legs with Root Vegetables

1 lg. yellow onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
4-6 c. root vegetables like potatoes, carrots, squash, beets, turnips, etc., roughly chopped
1/2 tsp. dried thyme or tarragon
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. olive oil
6 whole chicken legs, skin on

Preheat oven to 375°. Put chopped onion, garlic and vegetables in large bowl. Pour in 1 tablespoon of olive oil and add thyme, salt and pepper. Stir to combine and put in 9" by 12" pyrex baking dish. Rub chicken legs with remaining olive oil and place on top of root vegetables. Bake for 30 min., remove from oven and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place back in oven and roast another 30 minutes or until instant-read thermometer reads 160° when inserted into thickest part of thigh.

Pitching Some Chicken

I rarely order chicken when we got to a restaurant because it's something we have here at home fairly often, whether roasted, smoked or curried.

But, like Pedro Martinez, it's nice to have a changeup in your pitching repertoire when the family gets that "Chicken again?" look in their eyes. So I was very pleased to see this recipe raved on my brother's blog the other day, and it looked eminently adaptable to what I had in the vegetable bin. Plus it's quick and easy, and perfectly suitable for company when you want a comforting, seasonal dish. And I guarantee you'll get asked for the recipe.

Oven-Roasted Chicken Legs with Root Vegetables
Adapted from Epicurious.com

3 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
6 whole chicken legs with skin and bones, approx. 3 lbs. (chicken thighs work, too)
1 Tbsp. coarse kosher salt
2 tsp. dried thyme
1 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp. freshly grated or ground nutmeg
2 parsnips, peeled and cut into large chunks (I had a cauliflower, broken into florets)
3 sweet potatoes, scrubbed, cut into 2-inch-long, 1/2-inch-thick spears (I used Yukon Golds)
4 medium carrots, peeled, cut into 2-inch-long, 1/2-inch-thick spears
8-10 whole peeled garlic cloves
3 Tbsp. chopped fresh chives (optional)

Preheat oven to 450°. Coat large roasting pan with 1 tablespoon oil. Place chicken in roasting pan. Turn to coat with oil and set skin side up. Mix salt, thyme, pepper and nutmeg in small bowl. Sprinkle half of mixture over chicken. Roast until chicken starts to brown and some fat has rendered, about 30-40 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine all vegetables and garlic, 2 tablespoons oil and remaining salt-thyme mixture in large bowl. Transfer chicken pieces to medium bowl; set aside. Transfer vegetable mixture to same roasting pan; turn to coat with drippings. Roast until vegetables soften, 20-30 minutes. Place chicken on top of vegetables; pour accumulated juices from chicken over. Return sheet to oven. Roast until chicken is cooked and vegetables brown, 15 minutes longer. Place vegetables and chicken on platter; sprinkle with chives if desired.

Unmitigated Disaster

I was at home when Mt. St. Helens blew her top. I got a call from Dave, who was working at a newspaper at the time, asking if I'd like to go with him and try to get some pictures for the next day's edition. We got as far as a hilltop overlooking the mountain near Amboy, Washington, and started snapping shots of what looked like one of the biggest natural disasters in Northwest history. That was 29 years ago, and it's hard to see now, much less imagine, what that devastation was like.

We thought we had our own disaster, though without the extreme consequences, the other night when Dave went out to check on the chicken he was roasting on the grill. He'd soaked a couple of hunks of hickory and put them on the hot coals, and an hour later found what looked like a blackened cinder (albeit still chicken-shaped) on the grill. Though when he checked the temperature, all looked well.

So he brought it into the kitchen and the house filled with a smoky, intoxicating aroma. The skin was caramelized and deeply smoked, and the flavor of the meat underneath was delicately laced with the same taste. Next time we'll do a couple of these birds, having one for dinner and using the other for tacos, salads and snacking on. And the stock, which is bubbling away on the stove right now, might be the perfect base for a fabulous paella that we'll be doing on the grill later this week.