food & dining
S Off-Season Roast Chicken
vegetables, to add flavor to grains
like quinoa and barley and to stretch
sauces. It has already paid dividends.

The beauty of this broth is that you
don’t have to peel or chop anything.

Just chuck it all in the pot!
KERI WHITE | SPECIAL TO THE JE
ometimes you just want a roast
chicken. It seems a bit incongruous for
this classic cold-weather comfort meal,
which invariably ends up as a simmering
soup, to appear on a summer table. But
sometimes you just want a roast chicken.

As the old saying goes, “In for a penny,
in for a pound,” so we went autumnal
for this dinner — roasting sweet pota-
toes and cabbage alongside the chicken.

The plate was beautifully colorful, filled
with superfood nutrients, and the bone
broth we made the following day from
the chicken carcass, while steamy, filled
our freezer with an elixir that we will be
thankful for when fall falls.

Here’s what we did:
Roast Chicken with Sweet
Potatoes Serves 2-4
4.5-pound roasting chicken
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 lemon, cut in half
4 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut
in halves lengthwise (or wedges,
if potatoes are large)
Sprinkle of olive oil, salt and pepper
Place the chicken in a large pot, and
fill it with cold water. Add the remain-
ing ingredients, except the sweet
potatoes and additional oil, salt and
pepper, squeezing all the juice out of
the lemon into the pot and adding the
rind. Cover and allow it to brine in the
refrigerator for 2-24 hours.

When done, discard the brine, but
save the lemon halves. Rinse the
chicken, place the lemon halves in
the cavity and place them in a large
roasting pan. (Use a pan larger than
the chicken requires, as you will be
adding the sweet potatoes later and
will need the space.)
Pour ½ cup of water or broth in
the bottom of the pan, and roast the
chicken at 350 degrees F. While the
chicken begins to cook, prepare the
sweet potatoes — peel, cut and toss
them with a bit of oil, salt and pepper.

Bones, skin, fat and drippings from
a whole roast chicken
2 stalks celery
2 carrots
1 onion, cut in half
A few cloves garlic
A handful of fresh herbs, such as
rosemary, dill, thyme and sage,
if you have them; if not, use ½
teaspoon of each dried
2 teaspoons each salt and pepper
Photo by Keri White
After 30 minutes in the oven,
remove the pan from the oven and
place the sweet potatoes next to
the chicken. Place it back in the
oven for another 60 minutes until
the chicken and sweet potatoes are
cooked through.

a zip-seal bag with all the drip-
pings, and make the broth when the
weather breaks.

We simmered this overnight, cooled
it and froze it in sealable containers
for use in soups, risottos, to simmer
Place all the ingredients in a large
pot covered with cold water. Bring it to
a boil, lower the heat, cover and sim-
mer on very low heat for 12-24 hours.

Cool, strain and use as desired or
freeze. JE
Herbed Roasted Cabbage
Serves 4 generously (chop the
leftovers into salad tomorrow)
1 medium head cabbage, cut in
wedges 2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon herb blend, such as
Italian seasoning or herbs de
Provence 1 teaspoon salt
Generous sprinkle of fresh cracked
pepper Line a baking tray with parchment.

Place the wedges on the tray, brush
both sides with oil and sprinkle them
with herbs and seasonings. Roast them
in the oven alongside the chicken for
45 minutes until cooked through and
beginning to brown at the edges.

Bone Broth
If you’ve roasted a chicken, it is
practically a law that you must make
a soup or broth out of the bones and
freeze it, even if it is the dead of sum-
mer and the heat is oppressive. Trust
me, your October self will thank you.

If you really can’t stand the notion
of this enterprise now, put the whole
chicken carcass in the freezer in
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