Roasted Chicken with Stone Fruits and Red Onion

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This recipe was originally created by Melissa Clark, for the New York Times. It is a sheet-pan dinner of roast chicken, plums and red onions. She came up with it as a dish appropriate to Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, which begins on September 18, 2020 but it’s outstanding meal that can grace any table for a great family style meal.

This sticky, bright-flavored joyful meal is beautiful to behold and easy to make. This sheet-pan dinner combines sweet plums and soft red onions with crisp-skinned pieces of roasted chicken. Toasted fennel seeds, red-pepper flakes and a touch of allspice add complexity while a mound of fresh torn herbs crowns the top. If good ripe plums aren’t available, you can substitute another stone fruit including cherries, peaches, nectarines or pluots, though if your fruit is very sweet, you might want to add a squeeze of lemon at the end. Serve this dish with rice pilaf, couscous, polenta or warm flatbread for a festive meal.

Recipe Adapted from

Melissa Clark

New York Times Cooking September 2020

 

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons fennel seeds 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon grated lemon or orange zest

4 garlic cloves, finely grated

2 teaspoons honey

¼ teaspoon ground allspice

A very large pinch crushed red-pepper flakes, or to taste

One whole 3 1/2 pound chicken, cut into parts

Kosher salt, to taste

Ground black pepper, to taste

2 cups ripe, soft plums, pitted and cut into 3/4-inch thick slices

1/2 cup cherries, pitted and halved

1/2 cup nectarines, pitted and cut into 3/4-inch thick slices

6 fresh thyme sprigs

1 medium red onion, peeled and sliced from root to stem in 1/2-inch wedges

Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling

⅔ cup torn mint, basil or cilantro leaves (or a combination), for garnish

Maldon salt flakes, for garnish

 

Directions:

Toast the fennel seeds in a small skillet over medium heat, stirring, until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Pour seeds into a mortar and pound with a pestle until coarsely crushed (or lay seeds on a cutting board and pound them with a can or jar).

Put the seeds into a large bowl and stir in lemon juice, zest, garlic, honey, allspice and red-pepper flakes. Season chicken generously all over with salt and pepper and add to the bowl, turning the pieces to coat them with marinade.

Mix in plums and thyme sprigs. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 24 hours.

When ready to cook, heat the oven to 425 º F. Put the chicken pieces, fruit and thyme sprigs on a rimmed baking pan. Add onions, spreading them out around the chicken and plums. Season plums and onions lightly with salt.

Drizzle everything with olive oil. Roast until chicken is golden and cooked through, 30 to 45 minutes, removing the white meat if it’s done before the dark meat.

To serve, transfer chicken pieces as they are done to a platter. Spoon the plums and onions around the chicken. Drizzle a little of the pan drippings over the chicken and serve, garnished with the herbs and flaky Maldon salt.

 

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Roasted Golden Beet & Yellow Tomato Pizza

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IMG_2641 Pizza

Pizza Arrosto Di Barbabietola Dorata e Pomodoro Giallo is what this pizza is called in Italian….

I was looking for something different in terms of making a healthy pizza. I had an abundance of golden beets. So I roasted them and made pizza dough that was topped off with red onions onions, lots of roasted golden beets, a little fresh mozzarella and a little bit of crumbled goat cheese. A little salt and a little honey added the sweet and savory taste that made this almost vegan pizza, Oh so good! And of course a glass of Chardonnay went perfectly with this pizza. A glass a wine is optional, but I highly recommend it!

And if you know someone who doesn’t like beets, this pizza might convert them.

Makes One 10-inch Pizza, Serving 8

Ingredients:

One 4-ounce golden beet
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 pound Basic Pizza Dough
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
cup goat cheese, crumbled
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 pint yellow cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
1 teaspoon honey
Fresh basil leaves, for garnish
Fresh snipped chives, for garnish

Special Equipment:
Parchment Paper
Pizza Stone

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450°F.

Leave root and 1 inch of stem on beet; scrub with a brush. Wrap beet in parchment paper and place on a baking sheet. Bake at 450°F for 40 minutes or until tender. Remove from oven; cool. Trim off beet root; peel off skin. Cut beet in half crosswise; thinly slice halves.

Position an oven rack in the lowest setting. Place a pizza stone on lowest rack. Increase oven temperature to 500°F.

Preheat pizza stone 30 minutes before baking pizza.

Gently brush oil over Basic Pizza Dough. Sprinkle the mozzarella cheese on top of the dough, followed by beet slices,red onion and yellow tomatoes, evenly over dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Slide dough onto preheated pizza stone, using a spatula as a guide. Bake at  500° F  for 8 minutes or until crust is golden.

Remove from pizza stone. Sprinkle with salt  and drizzle with honey. Garnish with fresh basil leaves and snipped chives.

Cut into 8 wedges and serve.

Cook’s Notes:
If you can substitute shallots for the red onion, if desired. A commercially prepared pizza crust also works in a pinch when there is not enough t time to make the pizza dough.

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Tuscan Chicken with Zucchini and Tomatoes

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This Tuscan Chicken dish is made with the most delicious creamy tomato Parmesan sauce, chicken thighs, zucchini and tomatoes. Be sure to have some crusty bread on hand, because this sauce is to die for. When it comes to chicken thigh recipes, its hard to beat this one.


Serves 4

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
4 to 6 bone-in, skin on chicken thighs
Kosher salt,to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
1 teaspoon crushed fennel seeds
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 zucchini, sliced
1 summer squash, sliced
1 cup cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons milk
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan Cheese

For Garnish:
Fresh basil leaves
Tomato wedges

Directions:
In a skillet over medium heat, heat oil. Add chicken and season with salt, pepper,oregano,rosemary, thyme basil, marjoram, fennel seeds. Cook until the skin is golden brown and crisp, 8 to 10 minutes per side. Remove from skillet and set aside.

In the same skillet over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the zucchini, summer squash and cherry tomatoes to the skillet and cook for 5-10 minutes, until the cherry tomatoes begin to burst.

Reduce the heat to a simmer and add the cream and the milk. Add Parmesan cheese and stir until a creamy sauce forms. Continue to simmer until the sauce is slightly reduces, about 3 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning, as needed. Remove the rosemary sprigs.

Return the chicken to the skillet to skillet and cook until heated through, 5 to 7 minutes. To serve, garnish with a chiffonade of fresh basil and tomato wedges if desired.

 

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All photographs and content, excepted where noted, are copyright protected. Please do not use these photos without prior written permission. If you wish to republish this photograph and all other contents, then we kindly ask that you link back to this site. We are eternally grateful and we appreciate your support of this blog.

Thank you so much!