Roasted Chicken with grapes, shallots and garlic

This is such an easy recipe, I can’t believe I never thought of it before.  There I was, faced with a whole large chicken wondering what to do with it.  I knew I had thyme and rosemary in the refrigerator and figured I could always make a decent roasted chicken with that.  Add a little white wine with some stock at the end for a simple pan sauce and I’d have dinner done.  But that just wasn’t inspiring me.  And that’s when it happened.

“Dad, I’m hungry.  What can I eat?  Can I have some Goldfish?” my son asked.  “Why don’t you eat something healthier than that,” I replied.  ”We’ve got bananas, apples and grapes-choose one of those.”  “Wait, not the grapes.  I think I’m going to use them for dinner.”

He ended up with an apple AND some Goldfish.  I ended up with green and red grapes, shallots, garlic and thyme.  We all ended up with one of the best roasted chickens to come from my kitchen.  It was so good, we devoured it and I made it again the following night.  Enjoy!

I started by removing the innards from a 5 pound chicken and rinsed it under cold water then patted it dry with paper towels.  I generously salted inside and out with kosher salt then let it sit in the refrigerator uncovered for 1 hour.  I removed it from the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature for another hour.

I peeled a head of garlic (about 12 cloves) and 7 large shallots leaving the root end mostly intact and cut them in half.

I removed about 1 tablespoon of fresh thyme leaves from several sprigs then roughly chopped.

I cut about 1 pound of mixed red and green grapes into small clusters and tossed them in a bowl with the shallots, garlic, thyme, pinch of kosher salt, black pepper and 2 tablespoons olive oil until coated.

I rubbed the chicken with 1 tablespoon olive oil and seasoned generously with fresh cracked pepper and stuffed the cavity with a handful of thyme sprigs.  I placed it in a nonstick roasting pan and poured the grapes, shallots and garlic around it.  I roasted in in a 400 degree oven for 1 hour 10 minutes until the thigh registered 165 degrees.  If you overcook it slightly, don’t worry as it stays very juicy due to the grapes.

This is what it looked like when it came out of the oven.  For plating, I removed the chicken to a platter to rest and removed the grapes, shallots and garlic to a bowl.  I skimmed of the fat and placed the pan on the stovetop over medium high heat.  I added 1/2 cup dry white wine (the pan juices are sweet) and scraped the bottom letting it reduce by 1/2 about 1 minute.  I added 1 1/2 cups chicken stock and reduced it for about 4 minutes.  I stirred 1 teaspoon cornstarch together with 1/4 cup cold chicken stock then stirred it into the pan to thicken the sauce.

And this was the result.  Enjoy!