Curse you, Biggles!!
I just about had to go change my shirt when Dr. Biggles emailed with a cool gadget I'm going to post later this week, and to taunt me about a chicken dish he had just written about. When I went to his site, I was dumbfounded at the sight of prosciutto stuffed under the skin of a tasty 'chicky.' I commented that I had to have chicken for dinner Friday night, and I did.
No prosciutto on hand, and on a Friday evening after a long day in the office, there was no way I was going to the store. I did have some some chicken breasts and some leftover pesto, though. Hmmm.....
Pesto Infused Roast Chicken and Red Potatoes
You can find my very traditional technique for pesto here.
There's a small trick to doing this. You want all the herbs and stuff that will burn under the skin, to protect them, so just loosen one side of the skin and put a nice even layer of pesto on top of the breast. I did want to infuse the rest of the breast and the potatoes with all that herby, garlicky flavor too, so I used the oil as a marinade for about half an hour as the bird came up to temperature.
I put it all in a cast iron grill pan and got it hot on the stove top, then threw it into a convection oven at about 400º until it was almost done, then kicked on the broiler for the last few minutes to crisp everything up a bit.
Pan sauce? Yep. Just added some flour to the pan when it came out from the broiler. I was in a bit of a bind because the ridges on the frying pan were keeping me from being able to incorporate the flour, but once again, my trusty E-Z Hook® saved the day by letting me work in between the ridges. A little white wine to deglaze, a touch of Dijon, and added some homemade chicken stock, then let it reduce. I was too lazy to pick some parsley and add butter, but the pesto gave it plenty of herbs and oil, so I was off the hook. I served it with a steamed artichoke.
Was it good? Yep. The pesto is a fantastic way to develop uber flavors very quickly.
What did you have for dinner last night? Email me!
no prosciutto!! how horrible. looks pretty good. i like how you can kind of see the green comming thru the skin.
Yep, no prosciutto, but all that pungent oil really did the job. I like the green color, too, but I can see how it might put some people off, but I would also advise them strongly to get over it!
Thanks for stopping by, Gustad.
HA !!! I read the title of the post and thought to myself, hey I think he's been over at MH. Then, I sawr the curse! Neat.
I'm a huge fan of the pesto, huge.
Chicken this good is okay to have more often than not. Arrr, says I.
Biggles
I thought that would crack you up, Biggles.
And no kidding about the merits of pesto. I saw some pork chops in the fridge I'm tempted to pesto-ize. Is that a word?
I believe that would be, Pestoize. NO, you're right, Pesto-ize.
I've got a handful of chile peppers I've been gifted, from different sources. Plus I have a handful from the batch I smoked myself, been thinking about doing an adobo of some kind. Then, marinating pork in it. Then smoking it.
Biggles
(pssst)It's Chilebrown's birthday.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHILE!!!!!
Thanks for the heads up.
Adobo, love it. Whatever you come up with, you might want to save your marinade- boil it up and make a cream sauce out of it. Mmmmmm.....