BRAISED AND ROASTED CHICKEN WITH VEGETABLES

Braised and Roasted Chicken With Vegetables image

The idea behind this recipe was to create a contemporary American chicken dinner. The result is a whole-bird meal that takes a bit more time and effort than a simple roast chicken but offers an outcome that is just short of mind-blowing, with a variety of tastes and textures the classic cannot touch. You can make this dish with chicken parts and water or canned stock, but it's more efficient - and far tastier - to begin with a three-to-four-pound chicken and go through the whole process. Stay away from the water-pumped monsters, please; the point is to find a bird that tastes like something. The dish will serve at least four people - six, if you add a couple of sides.

Provided by Mark Bittman

Categories dinner, easy, weekday, main course

Time 2h

Yield 4 servings

Number Of Ingredients 12

Ingredients

2 tablespoons chicken fat, reserved from the chicken-skin croutons or use olive oil or butter
2 skinless chicken leg-thigh quarters
Salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 skin-on chicken breast, split to yield 2 halves
3 leeks, trimmed, cleaned and chopped
4 carrots, chopped
6 celery ribs, chopped, leaves reserved for garnish
12 to 16 ounces cremini, shiitake, button or other fresh mushrooms, quartered or sliced
3 to 4 sprigs fresh thyme or rosemary
Chicken-wing meat
The quick chicken stock

Steps:

Heat the oven to 350. Put the chicken fat in a roasting pan or Dutch oven over medium heat. Sprinkle the leg quarters with salt and pepper and add them to the pan, flesh side down. Cook, turning and rotating the pieces as necessary, until well browned on both sides, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove, then add the breast halves, skin side down. Brown them well, then flip and cook for just 1 minute or so; remove to a separate plate.
Put the leeks, carrots, celery, mushrooms, herbs and chicken-wing meat in the same pan and cook until the vegetables are tender and beginning to brown, 10 to 15 minutes.
Nestle the leg quarters among the vegetables, meaty side up. Add enough of the stock to come about halfway up the thighs. (The amount will depend on the breadth of your pan; add a little water if necessary.)
Put the pan in the oven and cook, uncovered, for about 1 hour, checking occasionally and stirring the vegetables if they threaten to brown too much. When the thigh meat is tender, raise the heat to 400 and lay the breast halves on the vegetables, skin side up. Continue cooking until they are done, 20 to 30 minutes longer.
Transfer the vegetables to a platter. You can serve one of two ways: slice the breasts and shred the leg-and-thigh meat and lay the meat on top of the vegetables; or cut the leg-thigh pieces in half, cut the breasts in half and give each person a little of each. Garnish with reserved chopped celery leaves.

Nutrition Facts : @context http, Calories 629, UnsaturatedFat 26 grams, Carbohydrate 24 grams, Fat 40 grams, Fiber 5 grams, Protein 44 grams, SaturatedFat 10 grams, Sodium 1264 milligrams, Sugar 9 grams, TransFat 0 grams