Pastured Chicken Version 2.0

Ok, so technically this is 3.0.  I told you about my first kitchen experience with a pastured chicken from McDowell Family Farm back here.  It was a Delaware; the next one I tried was a White Plymouth Rock.  I baked it at a lower temperature, 350℉ this time; it turned out better than my first attempt at the high temperature.   This month I picked up a couple Red Rangers, and I decided to use a recipe from French Farmhouse Cookbook.

First, I went out to the garden to see how the potatoes were coming.  I wish I had taken a picture before I chopped these guys up.  It was so fun to dig up these bright purple tubers out of the earth!  And they were so much larger than I expected.  I chopped them, added a couple carrots, drizzled with olive oil, added salt and pepper, and some rosemary.  I put it in the oven to cook alongside the chicken.

I've had purple/blue potatoes before that turned white when they cooked.  I was very pleased to see these turned a bluer shade, but kept their color.

I sort of followed the recipe for Basque Chicken.  You cut up the chicken into pieces, season with salt and pepper, then brown it in some olive oil on top of the stove, in an ovenproof pan.  Once the chicken has a nice golden color, remove it to a plate, then put a bunch of sliced onions in the pan and cook them until they're caramelized a bit, then add about 4 cloves of chopped garlic and cook it with the onions; season it with some salt and pepper.  Take the onions and garlic out, and put the chicken back in.  (With the constant stack of dishes in my kitchen these days, I'm trying to use as few extra pots and pans as possible!) Now sprinkle some ground piment d'Espelette over the chicken.  You could alternatively use a little cayenne or paprika or a mix of both.  Now put your onion and garlic mixture over the top of the chicken.  I also had some tomatoes and chard from the garden, so I laid the chard leaves over the onions, and placed the tomatoes on top of that, sprinkled a little more salt and pepper on top, then put the lid on.  Bake this in the oven at 400℉ for about an hour. 

This chicken was très yummy!  The Red Ranger had more breast meat than the others, and the texture was a lot better.  It was very juicy and tender.  Now that I've made myself hungry, I think I'll go heat up the leftover potatoes (and tell DH there are none! bwa haa haa!)  and make some chicken sandwiches.

Do you have a favorite chicken recipe?