There is nothing I like more than roast chicken. If I had to choose a last meal, it would no doubt include roast chicken. But since it’s my last meal, I’d insist on the Italian parade of dishes. So I’d start with an antipasti platter of little tasty morsels, then choose a pasta for primi (with clams? amatriciana? wild asparagus? goose ragu? I guess it would depend on my mood). My secondo, the mainstay, would be roast chicken (okay okay, if I could have La Cantina’s agnello scottadito, I might opt for that, but I think I may already be pushing the envelope of my completely hypothetical scenario).

Back in the States, I make roast chicken every Sunday. My process is effortless. So effortless, I can’t figure out why everyone doesn’t roast chickens more often. All I do is sprinkle it with salt and herbs or seasonings (if I’m feeling bold). Then I put it in a cast iron pan and put it in the oven at 450 degrees for about 45 minutes, until the skin is crackling. That’s it. I don’t season in the inside, i don’t rub it with butter, I don’t stick things under the skin. I mean, I have done all of those things, but then I realized that nothing compares with a simple chicken on a cast iron pan in a hot oven.

I serve with different sides—sometimes rice, but more often something in the potato family, like fries or my favorite is mashed potatoes with loads of butter and cream and some Gruyere cheese.

In Italy I still make roast chickens from time to time but whole chickens are actually not reliably available (this is the land of pork and lamb, not chicken). So our “roast” Sunday has instead trended to lamb stew and roast pork.

But this last week we got a whole chicken and I decided to do something a bit different. Figuring the only thing that could improve a roast chicken was porcini mushrooms, I made a stuffing of local Umbrian bread and rehydrated dried porcini mushrooms, a bit of lemon zest, and sage. With the liquid from soaking the mushrooms, I made a gravy.

This rocked our collective world. it hit the Thanksgiving spots, though honestly, much tastier.

Try it and see what you think.

Porcini stuffed chicken with Gravy

Ingredients

5-10 dried porcini mushrooms, depending on your preference, soaked in about 250 ml (about a cup) of water for a couple of hours, until soft. Then reserve the soaking liquid (if making gravy) and chop the mushrooms
2 tablespoons of olive oil
3 pieces of firm bread, crusts removed and torn with your hands into pieces the size of big croutons. If the loaf isn’t particularly tall, add another piece of bread
Half an onion, chopped small
salt and pepper
zest from half a lemon (it you don’t have a zester, peel half the lemon and mince the lemon strips)… do a quarter of a lemon if you’re not sure you’ll like the lemony flavor
1 tablespoon of fresh sage, chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 chicken
1 recipe gravy, below

Process

Preheat oven to 220 C/ 425 F.
Saute onion and mushrooms in olive oil over medium high heat until onions are soft, and then toss in the bread.
Stir, cooking until the bread is a little crisp from the oil.
Sprinkle in salt and pepper and check for seasoning.
Remove from the stove and add the lemon zest and sage, toss.
When it’s cool, add the egg and stir until incorporated.
Stuff the chicken and close with kitchen twine or wooden skewers (there are online tutorials that can walk you through this if it a new skill for you).
Put chicken breast side up in a roasting pan (I prefer a cast iron pan if you have one, particularly one that fits the chicken pretty exactly… it makes getting the juices later a breeze) and put into the preheated oven.
Cook for 15 min. Lower temperature to 180 C/ 350 F and cook for 45 more minutes.
Chicken should be a deep brown, if not, let it cook longer. Another test is to puncture the thigh and see if the juices run clear which indicates doneness.
Remove chicken from the oven and let it rest for 15 minutes. Resting is critical. It makes all the difference between a tender, flavorful chicken and one that is…meh. While chicken is resting, you can make the gravy.
Remove stuffing to a platter and carve chicken.

Porcini-scented gravy (optional)

Ingredients

2 tablespoon of butter
1 onion, chopped
2 tablespoons of flour
liquid from soaking the mushrooms
1 cup of chicken broth
2 tablespoons of heavy cream
salt and pepper

Process

saute onions in butter in a saucepan over medium low heat until mushrooms are soft and a little caramelized.
add the flour and cook for a few minutes, stirring constantly, to cook the flour taste out.
turn the heat to medium high and add the mushroom soaking liquid and the chicken broth, stirring until it’s thickened.
if it’s not thick enough, let it bubble away until it reaches thick gravy consistency.
add in the cream.
keep gravy on low until done carving the chicken.
add any chicken juices from carving to the gravy.
correct seasonings.
serve!

Buon appetito!