Amped Up Comfort Food: Roast Chicken in Milk with Moroccan Sweet Potato Salad

One of my all-time favorite things to eat is roasted chicken. The whole bird: roasted golden brown with its crispy skin and juicy meat. Pair it with mashed potatoes, gravy and a vegetable and you've got a meal of my most beloved comfort food.

As many of you who read my blog know and see, I commonly use my Le Creuset "Dutch Oven". I must admit that is far and away my favorite kitchen tool. Along with my Kitchen Aid mixer it is one of the best cookware investments I've ever made. And better yet it's yellow: my favorite color -- the color of sunshine, canaries, daisies and all things that bring happiness on a cold winter's day. But I digress...

I was recently pondering how I could make my favorite food in my favorite pot. A quick google search lead me to a Jamie Oliver's recipe for "Chicken in Milk". I know what you're thinking because my first response when reading the title was "huh?" But you got to trust me on this one; this recipe produced a phenomenally flavorful roasted chicken.  Better yet it was as Jamie would say "easy peasy."

Tonight I've paired the chicken with an equally flavorful Moroccan Sweet Potato Salad. Simply prepared green beans rounded out the meal.

Enjoy!


Roasted Chicken in Milk

Recipe adapted from Jamie Oliver's Happy Days with the Naked Chef

Ingredients

Whole chicken, about 4 pounds
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 stick of butter
Olive oil
1/2 a cinnamon stick
1 good handful of fresh sage leaves
Zest of 2 lemons
10 cloves of garlic, skin left on
2 cups milk

Directions

Browning in butter

Preheat the oven to 375F. Season chicken generously with salt and pepper. Melt butter in Dutch oven over medium high heat with olive oil. Fry chicken in the melted butter turning it to achieve an even golden brown color all over. Remove the pot from the heat, remove the chicken and set aside, and remove all but 2 tablespoons of the butter from the pot.

Place the chicken back in the pot with the rest of the ingredients. Cover pot with lid and cook in the preheated oven for 1½ hours. Baste with the cooking juice when you remember.

To serve, pull the meat off the bones and dress with sauce from the pot.

Pre-roast

Moroccan Sweet Potato Salad

Ingredients
2 sweet potatoes: peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
1 tablespoon olive oil
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoon chopped cilantro leaves

Directions
Preheat oven to 375F. Add olive oil and a generous pinch of salt to sweet potato cubes in a medium mixing bowl. Toss to evenly coat then spread in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Roast for 20 minutes until fork tender.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Meanwhile prepare the marinade by whisking together the spices with lemon juice and olive oil.   Spoon the marinade over the roasted potatoes, add cilantro, and toss to mix. Allow to sit for 30 minutes or so before serving. Salt to taste.