Chicken Five Ways: Roast chicken with corn-tomato sauce

This recipe (take 2 of my Chicken Five Ways project) turned out quite a bit better than the first. It’s funny, I work with a recipe 90 percent of the time, but I’m incapable of following directions. This is a perfect example of that.

The recipe, taken from the January 2010 Bon Appetit, calls for smoking your own tomatoes, INDOORS. Yeah, no. I live in an apartment, on the bottom floor, and I’m not going to harass my poor upstairs neighbors by deliberately filling the place with smoke. As it was, I had to disable both of my smoke detectors because of the sizzle from the chicken skin.

So, no smoked tomatoes. Also I skipped the wilted spinach because I didn’t have any and quite frankly, by the time the bird was done I wanted to be done cooking and EAT already.

I had to quarter a raw chicken for this, something I have never done. I asked this friendly chef at E-How, though, and he helped. (Secret weapon: kitchen shears.) Also key: cast-iron skillet. It gave me a gorgeous browned skin on the chicken that was irresistibly crisp, and I don’t even like chicken skin.

Most fun new-to-me ingredient? Adobo! I got chipotle chiles and some of the sauce dripped when I transferred what I didn’t use to a plastic container and ZOW! It’s hot. In a yummy way.

Corn and tomatoes and garlic, oh my.

Roast Chicken with Smoky Tomato Sauce
Adapted from Bon Appetit, January 2010 (itself adapted from a recipe at Habana in South Norwalk, CT)

• 1 3 1/2-4 lb. chicken, backbone removed, chicken quartered (*free range organic*)
• 4 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
• 1 3/4 cup corn kernels, fresh or frozen
• 1/2 cup chopped shallots (about 2 large)
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled, flattened
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
• 1 cup low-salt chicken broth
• 1 tsp. adobo sauce from canned chipotle chiles in adobo
• 3 Tbsp. chilled butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450°F. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper (I salt chicken at least two days in advance, per Judy Rogers). Heat 2 tablespoons oil in large ovenproof skillet (cast iron works well) over high heat. (DISABLE your smoke detectors. ) Place chicken, skin side down, in skillet. Cook until skin is brown, about 6 minutes. Turn chicken over, place skillet in oven. Roast until just cooked through, 35-40 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons oil in another, large skillet over medium heat. Add corn, shallots and garlic; cook 4 minutes. Add wine and lemon juice. Boil until liquid is reduced, about 4 minutes. Add broth, tomatoes and adobo.

Transfer chicken to plate; tent with foil. Spoon off fat from sauce in skillet (I have trouble with this, even when I pour it all off and wait for it to separate, so I just poured off most of the juice and eliminated the butter). Add corn mixture to skillet and simmer over medium high heat until sauce thickens, about 5 minutes. (Whisk in butter if you know how to do that “fat removal” step.) Stir in cilantro. Season with salt and pepper.

…this is not where the recipe stops in BA, but it’s where I stop. You can add wilted spinach with adobo and garlic as well as the smoky tomato sauce (made with wood chips and plum tomatoes), but this is delicious just as it is. Serve with a fresh salad and you have a simple weeknight meal.

Tags: chicken, corn, roast, supper, tomatoes, What's For Dinner

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 6th, 2010 at 4:00 am and is filed under Recipes, What's for Dinner. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.