This recipe is from the always wonderful Melissa Clark. It's a roasted chicken baked on slightly stale ciabatta bread slices. Morgan and I stood over the pan like vultures eating the crispy slices of bread, laden with chicken pan drippings. Nothing like some carbohydrates and a roast chicken to relive stress!
Garlic and Thyme-Roasted Chicken with Crispy Dripping Croutons.
Ingredients:
country bread or ciabatta, preferably stales, sliced 1/2 inch thick
1 T. extra virgin olive oil, more if needed
2 t. kosher salt, more if needed
1/2 t. freshly ground black pepper, more if needed
1 (4-5 lb) chicken, patted dry
1 garlic head, sliced in half through the cloves
1 bay leaf
1/2 lemon
1/2 bunch thyme sprigs
1. Preheat oven to 425. Lay the bread slices in the bottom of a heavy duty roasting pan in one layer. Drizzle liberally with olive oil and salt
2. Rub 1 t. salt and 1/4 t. pepper inside the cavity of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with garlic, bay leaf, lemon, and thyme. Rub outside with a tablespoon of olive oil and sprinkle all over with salt and pepper. Place it, breast side up, on the bread. Tuck the bread in and around the chicken as much as you can to keep the bread from burning.
3. Roast the chicken until its deeply browned and the thigh juices run clear with pricked with a knife, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Let it rest for 10 minutes before carving.
Serve the chicken with pieces of bread from the pan (or just eat them straight out of the pan!).
I roasted a pan of asparagus in the same oven for the last 25 minutes of the chicken's cook time to go alongside.
Perfect dinner that baked while I bathed the children. Between this and Nathalie Dupree's Slow Slow Chicken, we might have a roasted chicken every day-wholesome comfort food at its best!