Herb-Roasted Chicken and Vegetables

Last night, Ryan and I made a roast chicken for the first time. It ended up turning out really well, so we thought we'd share what we did.

We went to the U-District Farmers Market and bought some fresh herbs (thyme, sage, and rosemary), red potatoes, and green beans. Good stuff! Anyway, for our dinner, we decided to roast some potatoes and carrots with the chicken, and also have some green beans on the side. Other good vegetables to roast might be squash, zucchini, and artichoke hearts.

The oven should be pre-heated to 375 degrees. We used a 9x13 baking pan for the chicken. First we rinsed the chicken (make sure the inside is rinsed thoroughly) and patted it dry. Ryan lined the bottom of the pan with some sliced onions (cut into rings) and placed the chicken on top. We rubbed the chicken down with olive oil, melted butter, the fresh herbs, and some salt & pepper. Then we stuffed the chicken with onion, minced garlic, and some more herbs. After that, Ryan tied the chicken's legs together and pinned the neck skin.

We cut up the potatoes and carrots, then blanched them. After that, we tossed them with some olive oil, salt, and pepper. We arranged the potatoes and carrots at the bottom of the pan around the chicken. Then we roasted the chicken in the oven until its internal temperature was 180 degrees. Once the chicken was done, we took it out of the oven, covered the pan with foil, and let it rest for 10 minutes.

While the chicken was resting, we steamed the green beans. It took about 5-8 minutes. We tossed the green beans with butter, garlic salt, and salt & pepper. Then it was time to eat!

The chicken was delicious, but the potatoes and carrots might have been even better. The potatoes were a little crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, and the carrots were really nice and sweet. We kind of pigged out and ended up eating all of the potatoes and carrots last night. Mm-mm!

Linkspam

Yikes! We've really been slacking off with our posting. I have a couple more substantial entries in the works, but until then...

Just a few links, mostly recipes I'd like to try at some point:

12 Months of 5 Easy Dinners

101 Simple Appetizers in 20 Minutes or Less

Stuffed peppers, corn salsa, and corn chowder

Stuffed pizza bread

Ola (8/26/08)

On our second-to-last night in Hawaii, Ryan and I went to Ola at the Turtle Bay Resort on the North Shore of Oahu (Google Map). We first went to Ola last summer--on Michael's recommendation, actually--and it's kind of become our unofficial go-to "special occasion" restaurant. We went for Ryan's birthday back in January, so this last time was our third visit.


We started off with some of Ola's complimentary bread...it reminded me of bruschetta, but the bread wasn't grilled. It was french baguette slices topped with a tomato (fresh and sun dried), basil, feta, onion, and olive oil relish. Yum.


For our appetizer, we shared the ahi cake salad. The ahi cakes were similar to crab cakes, but made with ahi and seared--they were still pink in the middle. I actually would've liked the ahi cakes to be a bit rarer, but I prefer my fish raw in general. Anyway, the salad also had napa cabbage, hearts of palm, mixed greens, and won ton strips. The dressing was a tobiko aioli. It was a bit ginger-heavy, but it went well with this particular salad.


Since we were eating seafood, we decided to get a white wine. As we did at 12th Ave Grill, we went with a Washington wine--14 Hands Chardonnay.

As for our entrees, Ryan had the citrus-glazed seared ahi. It came with Okinawan sweet potato mash (they made it with some coconut milk...so good) and a vegetable medley.


I had the seared scallops, which were served with cranberry-fig chutney, asparagus, pancetta, and orecchiette. It was delicious.


Finally, for dessert, we had the "Chocolate Decadence" cake. It was your standard molten chocolate cake with ice cream...nothing out of the ordinary, but it sure was yummy. Ryan and I really should try our hand at making molten chocolate cake at home sometime.


All in all, another highly enjoyable visit to Ola. That's three-for-three! The food has always been good and the service is consistently pleasant and attentive. Also, their menu now consists of half "permanent" items and half seasonal items, so I don't think we'll ever get bored with the food options. I'm sure Ryan and I will be heading back there next time we're in Hawaii.