Paprika chicken, or the things we do for love
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Course
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Russian
Paprika chicken, or the things we do for love
This was my first ever introduction to prepping a whole chicken, and I have to say it was pretty easy. This is a simple marinated paprika chicken, but the mayonnaise sets it apart from other common recipes (and makes it thoroughly Soviet). Please allow time for the chicken to marinade for a few hours, or overnight. With the roasting chicken's aroma wafting through the house, the place definitely smelled like the kitchen of my childhood. We did a lot of reading on how to roast a whole chicken, but I found the Kitchn's guide particularly useful: https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-roast-a-chicken-home-ha-108002. And finally, one only preachy note: please, use a good, locally-raised, free-range organic chicken. I can't tell you if it'll taste better (though I have heard it does), but it will assuage my guilt over giving you a meat recipe.
Ingredients
- One 3-4 pound whole pasture-raised organic chicken, defrosted
- ¼-1/2 cup mayo
- 1 tablespoon mustard
- 2 teaspoons paprika
- 6 cloves of garlic
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 teaspoon spice mixture - we used a San Moreno salt blend but my grandmother leaves it pretty open. An Herbes de Provence mixture would be good, or a poultry seasoning blend
- 2 lemons cut in half
- 2 sprigs of rosemary
- 3 potatoes
- 3 carrots
- 1 onion
Instructions
- A few hours or the day before, slit the plastic wrap around your chicken, drain of any juices that were in the bag. If the innards are still there, remove them and use in stock making (our chicken was cleaned out by the farmers, so we didn't have to figure this part out). Place chicken in a large bowl.
- Pat the chicken dry thoroughly with paper towels, taking care to blot behind the wings, legs, and inside the body cavity. This will help the skin crisp up in the oven.
- In a small bowl, combine mayonnaise, mustard, paprika and other spices of your choosing, salt, and pepper. Finely mince two cloves of garlic and add to mixture. Mix well to combine. Start with ¼ cup of mayonnaise and if chicken is very dry, add more.
- Ensure that there are no juices in the bowl with the chicken. Rub the chicken with this mixture, taking care to cover all spots inside and out.
- Stuff lemons, rosemary sprigs and 4 cloves of garlic inside the chicken's cavity.
- Cover chicken with plastic wrap, and place in the refrigerator for a few hours, or overnight.
- When ready to roast, preheat oven to 500F. Wash and chop your potatoes, carrots and onion into wedges. Arrange them in an even layer on the bottom of a large roasting pan, in order to make a bed for the chicken. Sprinkle with the same herb mixture you used in the chicken's marinade: paprika, salt, pepper, and the spices of your choice.
- Sprinkle the outside of the chicken generously with salt and pepper.
- Set the chicken breast-side-up on the bed of vegetables (we got this part wrong and laid the chicken belly side-down. We then had to turn it over halfway through the roasting process. Don't make the same mistake). The chicken will be lifted an inch or two above the bottom of the pan by the vegetables.
- Put the chicken in the oven and let cook at 500 for 15 minutes, allowing the skin to crisp. Lower temperature to 400°F, and continue roasting for about another hour. After an hour, check if the chicken is done by inserting an instant-read thermometer in the meatiest part of its thigh. The internal temperature should be at least 165° for the chicken to be done. If you're under, put it back in to cook for another 5 to 10 minutes and check it again.
- Let the chicken rest for about 15 minutes before carving. Serve chicken alongside the roasted vegetables in the pan (which may need another 15 minutes on the grill setting at 500F to crisp up a bit more).
- Eat a drumstick for me.
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