Fairbanks Fantastic Foods and Feasts

What do you do when you want red wine for dinner but you don’t want red meat?

Golden and juicy roast chicken

Bridge ingredients can help you match food and wine. Nancy, at Devine Table, gives her recipe for roasted chicken with truffled butter paired with Cab Franc. When it came time for her birthday dinner, she wanted a Malbec. Knowing her meat preferences, I wanted to pair chicken with the Malbec for her birthday so I did a bit of research. After some poking around, I learned of others’ success in using baking spices to roast chicken, allowing those spices to serve as the bridge to the red wine. This recipe takes a little extra prep time, it has a 24 hour dry rub marinade, but the result is a tender, juicy and flavorful chicken that pairs great with red wines. It was such a success at Nancy’s birthday dinner with the Malbec that we had it again at Vivian’s birthday with a variety of Cab Franc wines.

Ingredients

• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1/4 c sugar
• 1 yellow onion
• 1 stalk celery
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 sprig rosemary
• 1 sprig thyme
• 1 4-5lb free range chicken

Prepare the dry rub

The day before, rinse the chicken.  Combine the salt, spices and sugar into a small bowl. Mix thoroughly. Rub about one third of the spice mixture all over the outside of the bird and the inside cavity. Using your fingers, gently loosen the skin around the neck and the butt end of the chicken. Pour spices into those openings, then very carefully with your fingers, gently push the spices deep in between the skin and flesh. Be careful not to break the skin but with patience, you can push the spices through out the breast, back and the thighs, even the top of the drumsticks. Loosely wrap the chicken in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 24 hours.

Roast the chicken

Preheat the oven to 500°. Cut the onion in to small wedges about 1″ thick.. Slice the celery into 1″ chunks. Stuff the cavity of the chicken with the onion, celery pieces and other herbs. Place the chicken breast side DOWN in the rack of a roasting pan. Roast the chicken for 15 minutes at 500°. Reduce oven temperature to 375°. Roast for another 15 minutes. Reduce the oven heat again to 350 and roast for 30 more minutes.

Remove the chicken from the oven. Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes before carving.

Note: There are four tricks to ensuring that this roast chicken is juicy and flavorful enough to pair with a bold red wine.

1. Use a free range chicken. Yep, they cost a bit more but the difference in the flavor is worth it. More depth and complexity in exercised flesh.
2. Roasting the chicken breast side down does make a juicy chicken. At home, I roast it my grandmother’s old roasting pan with a flat roasting rack and it browns beautifully on the breast as well as the back. In a “V” roasting rack it didn’t brown the breast, so if you have one of those, you may want to flip the bird breast side up that last 15 minutes of roasting.
3. Use care and patience while applying the dry rub. I probably spend a good 15 minutes creating pockets between the skin and flesh, spooning in the spice mixture into those pockets and working the rub deep into the pockets with my fingers. I go back over the chicken a second time and as it has warmed in my fingers, I can work the spices deeper under the skin.
4. If you have a convection oven, use it. 

Serving Suggestion

Roasted Potatoes with Truffled Salt

Cut 2-3 pounds of red potatoes into 2″ chunks. Lightly toss with olive oil and place in the bottom of your roasting pan under the chicken. Stir the potatoes once or twice while roasting the chicken to coat with chicken drippings. After you remove the chicken to rest, remove the potatoes from the pan. Dress the potatoes with truffle salt. Keep covered to keep warm while the chicken rests. It isn’t low cal but it is a heavenly bridge, especially for a earthy red wine.

Wine Pairings:

We first tried this recipe paired with William Church Winery’s Malbec.  Beef with Chimichurra sauce is a classic Malbec pairing so I made this roast chicken with Chimichurra sauce to pair with the Malbec. The baking spices were a delicious bridge to the spices in this Washington Malbec bursting with blueberry notes.

This roast chicken also paired well with Cabernet Franc. We especially loved it with Northwest Totem Cellars Qo-né (Cab Franc Blend) and Sheridan Vineyards Cab Franc