Roasted Chicken w/ Preserved Lemon and Root Veggies

Parks' "American Gothic"

I recently read the "One Read One Minneapolis" book, A Choice of Weapons, a memoir by Gordon Parks. Do you know Gordon Parks? I didn't. He is most famous for his photography, specifically American Gothic (at right), and he grew up in St. Paul. He grew up in the 30s and it is a really interesting read about race at that time in the Twin Cities (and elsewhere), and about all the crazy ways Parks survived, found ways to use his numerous talents, and create social critiques. His book actually has a forward by Wing Young Huie, the photographer who did the exhibitions of Frogtown, Lake Street, and University Ave. I thought the book was excellent. There is going to be an exhibit of Parks' work at the Mill City Museum, alongside photographs by Minneapolis high school students, in connection with the book. The exhibit opens tomorrow and will be there until spring.

The book has nothing to do with the recipe, but I do love reading while something is roasting in the oven, and I have been reading like a fiend lately. My curriculum seems to be "recent books by African American Authors." Other titles I highly recommend are Buck by MK Asante, The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, and Long Division by Kiese Laymon.

I love roasting chickens in this cold weather. It's nice to have the oven on, and it tastes so much more delicious than the rotisserie chickens at the co-op. This chicken was a bit of an experiment. I wanted to use the preserved lemons I made last spring, and I had some random root veggies I wanted to cook in the chicken juices. The preserved lemon on the chicken and veggies was Ah-Mazing - it added such a nice lemony/savory touch, and the drippings/sauce was incredible. The photo here is not mine (I am in denial about the loss of my camera), but is from Martha Stewart's recipe for roast chicken with preserved lemon. She does not pre-make the preserved lemon, but makes them in the brine for the chicken. I'm sure it's good - just more fussy.

Chicken (mine was 3.8 lbs)
1 preserved lemon (or a bit more)
salt
pepper
fresh thyme sprigs
root veggies - I used carrots, turnips, and sweet potatoes
onions
ghee/butter (room temp)
olive oil

I rubbed some salt all over my chicken the night before I was going to cook it - it was my replacement for brining. No need to be sparing, I did a nice Tablespoon or two and rubbed it on all sides, and put on a good few cranks from the pepper grinder too. I then left the chicken uncovered in the fridge overnight (or a couple of hours would be fine, or not at all).

I was making my bird in the morning before work, so I took the chicken out of the fridge first thing to bring it up to room temp. I am not sure why this helps, but many of the good recipes suggest it, so I followed suit. While it was acclimating, I chopped up the root veggies and an onion into coarse, larger pieces. (I cut the carrots lengthwise down the middle and then chopped them into 2" long pieces, and cut the onion into 6ths. The sweet potato cooks fastest, whereas the turnip was the slowest cooker, so cut the turnips smaller than the carrot, and the sweet potato bigger!) Throw the veggies in the bottom of a roasting pan and toss with some olive oil and several sprigs of thyme. I only lightly salted the veggies since they'll get the drippings from the salted bird.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and prep the chicken. My preserved lemons still had rind and innards intact, so I cut the rinds off (that is the really tasty part), reserving the rinds in one pile and the (somewhat slimy) lemon innards in another. I sliced the rinds so that I could tuck them in the chicken skin. Using my fingers, I separated the skin from the meat of the chicken - it pulls away and becomes like a pocket. Tuck in the sliced lemon rinds here. Next, rub some ghee all over the chicken. I rubbed the lemon innards all over the outside of the chicken too. I stuffed the cavity of the chicken with 1/2 an onion, some big sprigs of thyme, and the rest of the lemon innards. Tie the legs together and set the chicken (breast side up) on top of your veggies. If you have one of those fancy racks that suspends your chicken over the roasting pan and veggies underneath, great.

Tie those legs together; this is breast up!

Stick the roasting pan full of veggies and chicken into the oven. I cooked it for 20 minutes at 425 (the higher heat browns the skin and makes it crispy), and then turned the heat down to 350 and cooked for another 60 minutes or so. Cooking time will vary depending on the size of your chicken, but you want the temp of the thick part of a thigh to come out to at least 160. (I was rushing and accidentally temp checked the drumstick, which was at the right temp, so I took out the chicken. Later I realized that the inner thigh was definitely not done and had to put the whole thing back in the oven - so be sure you check the right spot!!) Once the thigh is hot enough, remove the roasting pan from the oven and let it rest for 20 minutes before you dig in. It will finish cooking all the way through and all the juices will set and it will get really tasty. During the 20 minute rest, I took the opportunity to stir the veggies around in all the juices, and also added some minced preserved lemon. Parsley would be great stirred in there too - though I did not have any.

Finally - SERVE! The meat is delicious, and I loved getting bites of preserved lemon rind in there. The veggies were soft and sweet and also great with the preserved lemon. All in all the preserved lemon was the star of the meal because it made everything else so extra special.

*If you are without preserved lemon, just slice up a regular lemon and stick the slices in the chicken cavity with the thyme (no onion is needed in that case). I'd also rub a little lemon juice on the outer skin too, and squeeze a bit onto the veggies.