Skip to main content

Balsamic Roasted Chicken {Food'N'Flix}: It's Complicated

When I saw that France from Beyond the Peel was hosting Food'N'Flix this month...and I saw her pick - It's Complicated - I ran right out to the store and rented the DVD. I've seen the movie before, thoroughly enjoyed it, and was happy to watch it again. Twice. France is one of my favorite foodie bloggers and I love that movie!

Click here to see France's invitation to her movie selection along with a bonus recipe of her any time caprese salad.

It's Complicated tells the story about previously married couple Jane (Meryl Streep) and Jake (Alec Baldwin) who find themselves engaged in an illicit affair, hiding their trysts from their three children, soon-to-be son-in-law, Jane's current love interest (Steve Martin) and Jake's current wife. Hmmm. That is definitely complicated. But, then again, what marriage isn't complicated, right?!

Add to the comical plot a garden to die for and her very photogenic bakery and you have a foodie dream come true. The only difficult thing to do: pick a recipe.

An obvious choice would have been her Croque Monsieur or lavender ice cream. Or even the decadent chocolate cake that she's stuffing in her mouth during a marajuana-induced munchie attack. But I opted to make roasted chicken and blanched green beans.

It's (her) Jake's favorite dinner and I loved the sentiment: no matter how much water is under the bridge in a relationship, you still remember his favorite dinner. And we all know the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. At least it was that way for me and (my) Jake. He jokes that the only reason he proposed to me all those years ago was because of my mad skillz in the kitchen! I don't think he's totally kidding, either.


Camilla's Balsamic Roasted Chicken

I'm not big on stuffing birds with something I'm going to eat, i.e., bread stuffing, but I'll happily stuff the bird with things that will impart flavor and help it retain its shape during cooking. What I stuff with depends on what's in my fridge. Today, I had limes and shallots. So, halved limes and whole shallots it was.

While I preheated the oven to 375 degrees, I rubbed the chicken's skin with butter, sprinkled it with freshly ground pink Himalaya sea salt, freshly ground rainbow pepper, and gave it a dousing of aged balsamic vinegar. Then I covered my baking dish and put it in the oven for an hour.

Then I uncovered the bird, basted it in its own juices and roasted it for another 20-30 minutes until the skin was brown and the drumsticks begin to pull away from the rest of the chicken. Continue basting every ten minutes, or so, to keep the bird moist.

While movie-Jake's side dish of choice was sauteed green beans, I prefer my beans to crunch. So I barely blanched them, sprinkled them with sea salt and drizzled them with olive oil.

Food‘nFlix

You still have plenty of time, if you want to cook and blog about It's Complicated; the posting deadline is September 23rd. Or next month we'll be watching and cooking from Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Never seen that one before...hmmm. Should be festive for Halloween. Wanna join the fun?

I still have a few weeks. If the Indian summer continues, I might just have to whip up some lavender ice cream before the month is through.

Comments

  1. This looks really, really tasty. Anything with balsamic is instantly better but this just looks like something delicious and also nutritious.

    Yum!

    Erin - ekcantcook.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm so intimidated by full chickens, but I need to try this. Looks great!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Quick Pickled Red Onions and Radishes

If you've been reading my blog for even a short amount of time, you probably know how much I love to pickle things. I was just telling a friend you can pickle - with vinegar - or you can ferment - with salt - for similar delicious effect. The latter has digestive benefits and I love to do that, but when I need that pop of sour flavor quickly, I whip up quick pickles that are ready in as little as a day or two. I've Pickled Blueberries , Pickled Asparagus , Pickled Cranberries , Pickled Pumpkin , and even Pickled Chard Stems ! This I did last night for an upcoming recipe challenge that requires I include radishes. Ummmm...of course I'm pickling them! Ingredients  makes 1 quart jar radishes, trimmed and sliced organic red onions, peeled and thinly sliced (I used a mandolin slicer) 3/4 C vinegar (I used white distilled vinegar) 3/4 C water 3 T organic granulated sugar 1 T salt (I used some grey sea salt) 6 to 8 grinds of black pepper Proce

Aloo Tiki {Pakistan}

To start off our Pakistani culinary adventure, I started us off with aloo tiki - potato cutlets. I'm always game for tasty street food. I found a couple of different recipes and incorporated those together for this version. Ingredients 6-8 small red potatoes, scrubbed 1 T cumin seeds 1 T fresh chopped parsley 1/2 t ground coriander 1 t minced garlic Procedure Boil the potatoes until they are tender. Drain and let cool. Mash the potatoes. Traditionally they are mashed without their skins. I left the skins on. In a small pan, toast the cumin seeds on high heat until the begin to give off an aroma and begin to darken. Remove from heat and transfer to a plate to keep them from cooking any more. Blend all of the spices into the mashed potatoes, then shape into small patties. If you wet your hands, the potato mixture won't stick to them. Heat a splash of oil in a large, flat-bottom pan. Dip each patty into beaten egg and carefully place in the oil. P

Meyer Lemon Custard-Filled Matcha Turtles #BreadBakers

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our of lovely bread by following our  Pinterest board  right here. Links are also updated after each event on the  Bread Bakers home page .  We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. This month Stacy of Food Lust People Love  is hosting and she wrote: "Your bread can be large, as in one big animal, or small - animal-shaped rolls. Use your imagination! Points for flavor and shape!" If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send an email with your blog URL to Stacy at foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com. Here's the animal-shaped bread basket from the #BreadBakers... Beef and Sweet Onion Dim Sum Pandas from Karen's Kitchen Stories Bird Bread Rolls from Ambrosia Easter Bunny Buns from Cook with Renu Ham and Cheese Elephant Rolls from Food Lust People Love Hedgehog Bread from Making Mir