Sunday night my dear friends JD and Catherine Sullivan invited me for dinner. JD is a good cook (see the sausage making video we did together; video also feature my partner in tools, Mac Dalton, an appearance by my young son, James, who now, lean and tall, looks me straight in the eye, and JD at the end; it's a good primer on making sausage).
But when I arrived to find that JD's chicken Provençal was simply baked chicken with herbs I was prepared to be underwhelmed.
JD explained that it was a recipe from the estimable Sam Sifton who runs the excellent NYTimes cooking site. Chicken is seasoned, floured, put in a baking dish and roasted for about an hour. It turned out to be a terrific preparation, thanks to the aggressive herbage, and also, importantly, lemon, whole garlic cloves and whole shallots, all of which flavor the rendering fat and juices that JD basted the chicken with throughout. You can use any Provençal herbs that you have on hand, but to my mind the most important is plenty of whole branches of thyme.
This is a terrific meal (eating the shallots and whole garlic gloves along the chicken) that couldn't be simpler and allowed for plenty of time to talk and drink wine during the cooking process, perfect for a chilly Sunday evening or even a weeknight dinner.
Roasted Chicken Provençal
- 4 chicken legs or 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ½ to ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons herbes de Provence
- 1 lemon, quartered
- 8 to 10 cloves garlic, peeled
- 4 to 6 medium-size shallots, peeled and halved
- ⅓ cup dry vermouth
- 4 sprigs of thyme, for serving
4 servings
- Heat oven to 400 degrees. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Put the flour in a shallow pan, and lightly dredge the chicken in it, shaking the pieces to remove excess flour.
- Swirl the oil in a large roasting pan, and place the floured chicken in it. Season the chicken with the herbes de Provence. Arrange the lemon, garlic cloves and shallots around the chicken, then add the vermouth to the pan.
- Put the pan in the oven, and roast for 25 to 30 minutes, then baste it with the pan juices. Continue roasting for another 25 to 30 minutes, or until the chicken is very crisp and the meat cooked through.
- Serve in the pan or on a warmed platter, garnished with the thyme.
If you liked this post, then you will enjoy these links:
- My past posts on New Cooking App: Feast, Happy New Year and Peace on Earth.
- Epicurious shares their top 15 chicken recipes.
- Blend your own herbs de Provence using Emeril's base ratio.
- Learn more about the Provence region of France.
© 2016 Michael Ruhlman. Photo © 2016 Donna Turner Ruhlman. All rights reserved.
Big fan of this recipe, and I am using the NYT cooking app on an almost daily basis these days. Really changed the way I cook. I remain vexed at the notion on starting the chicken in a cold pan, as the recipe seems to indicate. Better to brown one side and get some crust, which I do on the stovetop in my cast iron, then lay in the rest of the ingredients and move into the hot oven. Another tip: make a pan sauce with the remaining liquid and reserve, then top a pizza with it, along with the leftovers, if you have any. 🙂
Ruhlman said the same thing about browning when I started cooking this. Not a bad idea but worked out just fin without.
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Made this tonight using herbs from my garden (rosemary, sage, oregano, lemon thyme). Very easy to make and the results were quite tasty. However, the skin stayed a bit too soft. Next time I will give it a final blast under the broiler to crisp things up a bit. This goes on the list of need-to make-dinner-on-Wednesday-night-when-I got-home-later-than-planned-and-don't-feel-like-doing-a-lot-of-prep meals.
Could you substitute stock or white wine for the vermouth?
I used Chardonnay and some homemade chicken stock and it was delicious!
My chicken isn't browning, put it in for another 10 minutes.
Mike Snodgrass, Cook's kitchen rated Gallo extra dry vermouth as top rated. I bought a 5th tonight for about $5.00. Easy enough to have around.
Thank you.
Chicken never browned, but I had 1/4 more legs and thighs than the recipe called for and my large skillet was probably too crowded.
It was delicious. Bread soaked in the drippings was excellent also.
Michael I made this last night for friends and it was absolutely delicious!! Thank you for posting. I am not putting this in my arsenal!
I meant to say NOW in my arsenal! Good grief! Sorry!
I really liked this recipe the only other time I made it, adding olives to the mix. But I am mystified by the references to "basting" and "juices." I followed the instructions completely except I used much more vermouth than called for (ok, the entire small bottle!) and even so there was virtually no liquid in the bottom of the pan half way through to baste anything. (BTW, I too broiled for the last few minutes to crisp up the top of the chicken . . . ) Is it my chicken, which was in the end delicious? I live high up (7300 feet) but surely that wouldn't result in zero juices except what remained from the vermouth . . . )
Steve, we add extra vermouth, and liberally pour in chicken stock. We check after 30 minutes, and add more liquid as needed. I cheat and put a little pat of butter on each piece, and it turns out super crispy.