This is it. This the recipe that started my cooking journey. I had just started dating Bill and I was going to make him dinner. I can remember it now, I was at the Star Market on Mt. Auburn in Watertown, and In Julia’s Kitchen with Master Chefs caught my eye. I picked it up, saw the Gordon Hamersley recipe for the Roasted Chicken, bought the ingredients and went to town.
The cook book is great for a beginner, the way it lays out the recipes and there are a lot of pictures, which I love. I was able to follow the directions and I could not believe the end result. Not only did it look just like the picture but it tasted like a restaurant quality dish. Bill was impressed. I was giddy inside. He assumed that was no big deal and that is the way I cooked normally (I let him keep thinking that), I got addicted to cooking magazines, cook books and cooking shows. Fast forward 18 years and I am the author of my own food blog. All thanks to falling in love! xo
ps…..Hamersley’s Bistro is a 20-year-old Boston Institution and this recipe is still on the menu. Yes, it’s that good!
- One bunch of flat leaf parsley (reserve some leaves for garnish)
- 3 Large garlic cloves, chopped
- 3 Large shallots, chopped
- 1 Tbsp Herbs de Provence
- 3 Tbsp Dijon
- 6 Tbsp Olive Oil
- Salt & Pepper
- 2 Lemons
- 1 Whole Roasting chicken or 4 Split Chicken Breast on Bone
- 3 Onions, peeled and cut into quarters
- 1 Tbsp Unsalted butter (optional)
- ½ cup Chicken Stock
- ¼ cup White wine (optional)
- Place the parsley thru Salt and Pepper in a food processor and blend until you have the paste marinade. Grate one of the lemons and add the grated lemon to the marinade. Squeeze the juice from the lemon and reserve for the sauce.
- Salt & Pepper the chicken and then rub the marinade all over the chicken. Marinate at room temperature for 1 hour or up to 4 hours in the refrigerator.
- Heat the oven to 350.
- Place the chicken in a roasting pan, and arrange the quartered onions around the chicken.
- Roast the chicken until 165-170, approximately 1 hour for the breasts or 1.5 hours if whole chicken.
- If using the whole chicken, allow to rest for 20 minutes, cut up into pieces and place on a cookie sheet. If using chicken breast, immediately place on cookie sheet. Slice remaining lemon. Set the oven to broil, place a slice of lemon on top of chicken pieces and broil until the skin gets a golden color.
- Allow the chicken to rest with foil on it.
- Meanwhile, make the sauce: Pour the reserved chicken juices into a pan, draining any fat. Add the chicken stock, wine and half of the lemon juice to the pan and reduce by half, about 10 minutes. Taste for seasoning. If you like, add the butter to richen the sauce.
- Serve the chicken with the roasted onions on the side and the sauce over, garnish with parsley.