Gordon Hamersley's Roasted Chicken

Hamersley's Bistro is one of my favorite restaurants in Boston.  I have written about this restaurant so many times on this blog because I have never had a bad meal or dining experience there.  Plus, this is also the restaurant where Bret first told me he loved me one summer night during a romantic meal on their patio.  So, I'm also pretty biased about how I feel about the restaurant!

If you've been to Hamersley's Bistro, you know that Gordon Hamersley's roast chicken with garlic, lemon and parsley is unbelievable and a dish that you just can't miss.  Awhile back, one of the partners at my firm gave me a copy of this recipe to make Gordon Hamersley's roast chicken and since I had the day off of work, I finally gave it a try yesterday.

The recipe isn't the most clear in its instructions and I followed it as closely as possible.  First, I gathered the ingredients:

Marinade

• 1 bunch of Italian parsley (I used about a half bunch of curly leaf parsley)

• 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped (I used five cloves)
• 3 shallots, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 tablespoon dried rosemary
• 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard (I used Edmond Fallot Green Peppercorn Dijon Mustard)
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons cracked black pepper
• 6 tablespoons olive oil

For the Chicken

• 2 chickens, 3 pounds each (my chickens were closer to 4 pounds each)
• 2 russet potatoes, scrubbed and cut into quarters the long way
• 1 large Spanish onion, skin on the root trimmed, cut into quarters throughout the root
• 3 teaspoons cooking oil (I used vegetable oil)
• 4 ounces rich chicken stock
• 1 heard roasted garlic, cloves separated
• 1 lemon, 1/2 cut into slices and 1/2 juiced (I ended up using one whole lemon for slicing and the juice of the lemon that had been zested for the marinade)
• 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter
• Salt and pepper, to taste

First, I combined all of the ingredients for the marinade except the lemon zest in the food processor.  I pulsed it until smooth and then folded in the lemon zest.

I then washed and dried the chickens.

I rubbed them all over with the marinade, covered them and let them sit in the fridge for two hours.

After the chicken marinated for two hours, I pre-heated the oven to 350 degrees.  I placed a small baking pan in the oven to heat up while the oven was pre-heating.  While the oven warmed up, I seasoned the chickens with salt and pepper and placed them in two roasting pans.  One of the roasting pans was this great Paula Deen roasting pan that I purchased from CSN Stores as the winner of Evan's giveaway.

When the oven reached 350 degrees, I took the baking pan out, sprayed it with cooking spray and added a few drops of the vegetable oil.  I seasoned the pan with salt and pepper, and then added the chopped onion and potatoes to the pan.  I put the baking pan in the middle rack and put the chicken on the top rack for about an hour and twenty minutes.

While the chicken was roasting, I separated and peeled the cloves of a head of garlic.  I tossed the garlic cloves with olive oil and slowly roasted them in the toaster oven.

When the chicken and vegetables were done roasting, I took both out of the oven.  While Bret checked the temperature on the chickens (to make sure they got to 165 degrees), I removed the dry outer leaves of the onion.  I covered the baking pan with the onion and potatoes with aluminum foil and put it on the stove top to keep warm.

Meanwhile, the chicken were placed on a cutting board to cool for about twenty minutes before breaking them down.  Bret graciously helped me with this as this gets me a little squeamish. 

Once the chickens were broken down, they were arranged skin side up in two lightly greased roasting pans.  The lemon slices were added on top of the chicken and a combination of the cooking juices and two ounces of chicken stock were poured on top.

The chickens went into the oven and were broiled for about ten minutes each.  While the chickens were getting crisp, I reduced three ounces of chicken stock, the juice of one whole lemon and the roasted garlic cloves in a small sauce pan.  When the sauce thickened, I added a tablespoon of unsalted butter to the sauce, and seasoned it with salt and pepper.

Even though it was just the two of us, I arranged one of the chickens on a platter with the potatoes and onions.  After all of the hard work, I couldn't skimp on presentation!

We served ourselves and also added poured some of the sauce onto the chicken and vegetables.

This was definitely an intensive recipe.  It took about four hours from making the marinade to finally sit down and eat dinner.  But it was worth the time and effort.  It was pretty close to the flavors of Gordon Hamersley's version - from the crispy chicken skin, moist chicken meat, crispy potatoes, roasted garlic and lemon undertones. 

We have a ton of roasted chicken leftover (a whole chicken and a half!).  Tell me, do you have any creative ways to use leftover roasted chicken?