Roasted Chicken with a Mushroom Cream Sauce
Ingredients:
1 whole chicken
Some herbs of your choice
Salt and Pepper
1 Onion and 4 cloves of garlic
Olive Oil
Additional Garlic for the sauce
1 tbs butter
Portobella Mushrooms (you could probably lots of different kinds)
Heavy Cream
White Wine
Chicken Broth
Parsley
Pasta
So, this was kind of a hodgepodge of a recipe that turned out pretty well. Because I am lazy, I used dried herbs instead of fresh ones (which would probably be more delicious), but I think it worked out great.
Dry off your whole chicken (3-4 lbs) with a paper towel so it will brown easier. In a bowl, combine 3 tbs (or so) of the olive oil with 1 tbs of Kosher Salt, 1 tsp of pepper, 2-3 tbs of herbs (I used rosemary, thyme, and sage). Rub the oily herby mixture all over your chicken on all sides (including the inside- just stick your hand right up in there).
Chop your onion into 3-4 big pieces, chop four of your garlic cloves in half, and stick it inside the chicken. You could also add half of a lemon or a carrot or something- this is just going to be aromatic, to increase the flavor of the chicken. We won't actually eat this stuff.
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Stick your chicken in a roasting pan (or you could put it on a heavy cookie sheet, just cover it in foil so the grease doesn't smoke up the oven), and let it cook for an hour and fifteen minutes or so (if you want to brown the skin, go ahead and take off the foil near the end. Just keep an eye on it).
While the chicken is baking, make the sauce! I sauteed the mushrooms and 2 cloves of minced garlic w/ 1 tbs of butter until the mushrooms began to soften. Then I poured in some white wine (about half a cup) and let it cook for a minute. Pour in some chicken broth (I'd say around half a cup as well, i was just kind of going for it). Cover the sauce and let it cook for a little while until the liquid has reduced, then mix in a cup of heavy cream.
At this point, you can adjust for volume and thickness. If you like a lot of sauce, add more liquid (taste it for flavor). If you want it to be thicker (like I did), cover the pan and let it cook over low heat (stir it occasionally) until it has started to thicken. Season with salt and pepper, and add in some parsley for good measure. (The picture below is pre-thickening. See how its kind of watery?)
Once your chicken has roasted (use a meat thermometer if you aren't sure), take it out of the oven. VERY IMPORTANT- let it sit for 10-15 mins so the juices can redistribute. If you cut into it right away, all the juiciness is going to come spilling out. While the chicken is sitting, make your pasta.
Cut the chicken into pieces, mix the sauce into the pasta, and stick that chicken right in there! Yum.
(Hairy forearms not included with the recipe)
