Anchovy-Mustard Roasted Chicken

Anchovy-Mustard Roasted Chicken

“Chicken is funny: you either have to do nothing to it or you do a lot,” Michael Chiarello, the chef and TV personality, once told me.

By “nothing,” Chiarello meant just seasoning it with salt and pepper and sauteing, grilling, baking or poaching it. By “a lot,” he meant using the variety of techniques that are so popular for chicken cookery in the country: salt-water or buttermilk brining, marinating, dry curing, smoking, wood-grilling, spice-crusting, barbecuing and deep-frying.

This week’s recipe, adapted from New York chef Justin Smilie’s “Slow Fires,” does a lot to chicken.

The chicken is first brined in a salt, sugar and lemon solution, then marinated in a mixture of mustard, rosemary and anchovy, then pan roasted, and finally basted with its own juices.

At Avelina, we make this dish with barnyard chickens from High Plains Poultry in Bennett. We serve it on a bed of flageolet beans sautéed with chorizo, spicy greens, garlic and mustard.

(Adapted from Slow Fires by Justin Smilie); Serves 3-4 Ingredients

1 3-pound free-range chicken, thighs and legs separated, breast removed with rib cage and first wing joint attached 2 tablespoons olive oil Chicken Brine ( recipe follows) Chicken Marinade (recipe follows) 2 quarts cold water 4 sprigs fresh thyme 1 bay leaf 1 tablespoon cracked roasted black pepper

½ cup kosher salt 2 tablespoons sugar 1 lemon, thinly sliced Directions

Place all ingredients in a 6quart plastic container and whisk well to dissolve salt and sugar. Add the chicken pieces and cover with plastic. Refrigerate for exactly 12 hours. Remove the chicken from the brine.

½ teaspoon cracked black pepper 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar Zest of ½ a lemon Juice of ½ lemon 1 clove garlic, chopped 2 anchovies, chopped 1 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves, roughly chopped

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil Directions

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Pour marinade into a Pyrex dish. Add the chicken pieces to the marinade and toss to coat well. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. The chicken is ready after 5 hours and will hold the marinade for up to 3 days.

To cook the chicken, preheat oven to 365 degrees. Heat a large, heavy, oven-proof saute pan over medium heat and add the olive oil. Place the chicken pieces, skin side down in the pan, making sure they are not touching.

Cook the pieces for about 5 minutes until the skin is golden brown. Place the pan in the oven and cook for about 18 minutes.

After 18 minutes, remove the pan from the oven, turn the chicken pieces and let it sit on the stovetop for about 5 minutes. Every minute or so, use a large spoon to baste the chicken with its juices. Halve the breasts. (Note: If the breast is slightly pink, return the whole pan to the oven for 3-4 minutes.)

Serve the chicken with rice, beans or mashed potatoes.