Three Things
A simple roast chicken upgrade, your listen of the week, and what's always in my freezer
Greetings eaters and readers! Hope you enjoyed your long weekend. My friends Samidh and Nithya came by on Saturday afternoon with their young kids, which gave me just excuse I needed to bake a batch of Sarah Kieffer’s Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. The recipe is in her book 100 Cookies, which I use often, especially on cozy winter weekend afternoons that beg for the house to smell of baked goods, but you can also check out her world-famous pan-banged chocolate chip cookies if you need to bake something right exactly now. Let’s get to those Three Things!
1. An Easy Upgrade for Roast Chicken
I think I made the best roast chicken of my life on Friday night. Actually I made two of them because our friends Matthew and Claudia were coming over and I didn’t want to sit there the whole time and get nervous about not having enough food even though one four-pounder is always enough for my own little family. (It was the right call. Plus, was it Kevin Costner who said “If you cook it, they will eat?”) The technique wasn’t all that different from my ole reliable roast chicken recipe, except that in the final half hour of cooking, I brushed my birds with a generous amount of harissa — the spiced Tunisian chili paste that is available pretty much everywhere now, even at Trader Joe’s. (But FYI: New York Shuk is my favorite brand.) I remember doing this a lot when I first discovered harissa, and there’s even a recipe for it in one of my earlier cookbooks, but I had forgotten how the harissa ends up mixing in with the chicken drippings to lend the pan juices (and therefore the whole thing) a subtle, delicious depth. P.S. I’m thinking this chicken might be the starting point for my next Please Everyone Dinner Party* (in about two weeks) so sign up if you’re interested in seeing what else I served as well as the weirdly short shopping list for the entire night’s menu.
*For those of you with young kids, who read my dinner party reports like they are untranslated dispatches from a galaxy far far away, have you considered instead hosting a Mildly Chaotic Brunch?
Harissa Roast Chicken
Serves 4 (see above note)
7 medium carrots, cut into large-ish chunks
1 yellow onion, chopped roughly
2 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 whole roasting chicken, between 3-4 pounds (make sure to check for the little packet of giblets inside cavity and remove if it’s there), at room temperature, patted very dry with a paper towel (outside and inside the cavity)
1/2 small lemon
12-15 sprigs fresh thyme
4 tablespoons butter, melted
3 tablespoons harissa
Heat oven to 425°F. Arrange carrots and onions in a roasting pan, toss with olive oil and and season with salt and pepper. (The vegetables will act as a rack for the chicken and flavor the chicken juices that drip through them.)
Place the chicken on a cutting board, stuff its cavity with the lemon and thyme sprigs, and truss it. Place the chicken breast-side up on top of the carrot-onion bed. Using a basting brush, brush the chicken’s skin all over with about 1 tablespoon of the melted butter, and season with salt and pepper. (Turn off the heat, but keep the butter on the stovetop.)
Place the roasting pan in the middle rack of your oven. (The general roasting rule I use is 18 minutes per pound, and I literally break out the calculator and multiply by the exact decimal point.) When you have approximately 30 minutes left, reheat the butter on the stovetop until it melts, and stir in the harissa until it’s combined. Brush the mixture on the chickens (be generous, the word spackling comes to mind) and continue roasting. You know your chicken is done when the skin is golden and its juices run clear (not pink or red) when the thickest part of the thigh is pierced with a sharp knife.
Remove the roasting pan from the oven and set near your carving board. Before removing the chicken from the pan, and using oven mitts, tip the hot chicken to let the juices from the bird’s cavity run into the pan. Remove the chicken to the carving board. Untie the trussed legs, and let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes to cool. While it’s resting, place a strainer over a large measuring cup or mixing bowl (I do this in the sink) and pour the roasted vegetables and harissa-spiked pan juices through the strainer. Let the juices and fat settle then skim off as much of the fat from the top as you can. Carve the chicken as best as you can (no one is photographing your dinner!), arrange on a platter with the strained schmaltzy carrots, and drizzle the pan juice all over.
P.S. What to do with the rest of the harissa jar — besides spread it on more chickens? Start with the Yogurt-Harissa dressing in The Weekday Vegetarians. It’s so good on a shredded carrot and mint salad. Book owners: page 208.
2. In this week’s episode of “you can freeze that?”…
I cook with fresh jalapeños and red chiles fairly often, just not in huge amounts, so in the past year I’ve taken to buying them in bulk at H Mart, slicing them up, seeds and all, then freezing the rounds. I have no idea why this brings me such joy, but at this point in my life I try not to ask too many questions on that topic. The peppers thaw so quickly when tossed into omelets and stir-fries and underneath a blanket of cheddar when I bake Big World Event Super Nachos or…
…on top of Hetty McKinnon’s addictive Salt and Pepper Eggplant, easily in my Top 5 All-Time Easy Vegan Dinners. (Unexpected bonus: When I do the slicing, I get to use up the boxes and boxes of plastic gloves I bought in the early paranoid days of the pandemic.) I worry sometimes that the line between obvious and brilliant is razor thin, so you’ll tell me which way I tipped this time. Or, actually, maybe don’t?
3. Listen of the Week
John Green and Hank Green, the brothers behind so many things, but mostly the enormously popular YouTube channel Crash Course, were the latest guests on “How I Built This” and I loved this line from John Green, who — did I not mention? — also happens to be the mega-bestselling author of five novels including The Fault in Our Stars. “The truth is I have no idea how to write a book. In this interview I feel like I need to talk as if I know how to write a book when the evidence is overwhelming that I don’t based on the fact that the last time I published a novel was five years ago. I have a very inefficient process in that I write a draft and I delete almost all of it. And that’s the only way I know how to write a story.” If John Green does not know how to write a book, then there is hope for us all. Give the whole podcast a listen, they are such forces for good in this world, so you’ll come away smarter and happier.
P.S. Also on my radar this week: Trust, by Hernan Diaz (heard amazing things, have you read it?) and The Creative Act, by the iconic Rick Rubin, out today!
P.S. London Calling
Our daughter is studying abroad in London which means one very important thing: we get to visit her. I’ve already poured over Brooks Reitz’s Eating London and Yolo Intel’s Black Book (FYI: subscription required for both), so I’m just about all set for food, but tell me what to do, where to walk, which Premier League matches I can realistically get tickets to! We’ll be staying in an airbnb in South Kensington. Comment below or just reply to this email.
Thanks for reading, everyone.
Jenny
I just came back from South Ken, which has been "my" neighborhood in London since about 2015. Used to go 1-2x a year until sadly interrupted by the pando; went back over New Year's for a reset. South Ken is a great choice because you can take the Piccadilly line straight in from Heathrow — do not bother with the Heathrow Express, the Piccadilly line is longer but you don't have to change trains.
The best pub in the neighborhood is The Hereford Arms on Gloucester Road, and their dining room is great too (but you should book ahead). An alternate best is The Drayton Arms on Old Brompton Road; the second floor is a little theatre. The best supermarket is the Waitrose above the Gloucester Road Tube stop; I have bought a shocking amount of cheese there. There's a cool little Danish bakery that was new to me on Old Brompton Road very close to the South Ken Tube: Ole & Steen.
My. No. 1 not too long walking itin, a few hours with all stops, would be to take the Circle & District line from South Ken to Monument, get out, walk toward the river (pausing to admire the Monument to the Great Fire of London), climb up onto London Bridge, walk across the river, dive into Borough Market (visit: Spice Mountain; the duck sandwich place at the back; and the tiny oyster counter next to the duck place that must have been recommended on WeChat because the line almost always seems to be 50% Chinese visitors.) After duck, turn around and walk down Park Street and buy some Neal's Yard cheese. If the weather is nice, go up The Shard for the observation deck; otherwise, walk out of Borough on Cathedral Street past the replica of the Golden Hinde; turn left on Clink St. (where there used to be a prison, which is how we got "clink" for jails); go through a tunnel and emerge onto Bankside. Pass the rebuilt Globe Theatre (there are tours on non-performance days) and, if the tide is low, look for the steps that will take you down to the waterside, where people will probably be mudlarking. Come back up to street level at the next steps, which puts you at the Tate Modern, and give it a thorough exploration, it's an amazing building. After emerging from the museum, walk across the Millennium (Wiggly) Bridge to St. Paul's, explore that, and then go on from there.
(Not recommending restaurants because you said you are set, but I have thoughts if you need them.)
I loved In the Distance, Diaz's first book, so much that I ran out and bought Trust. I know I should like it more than I do. I think it's interesting and very well plotted and written, but it didn't grab me emotionally as did In the Distance. It's worth reading, but I won't re-read it.