Weekly Cooking Report June 6: One hour Broiled Chicken with Roasted Veggies and Couscous

Alas I didn't get a photo of this one, but I'm stealing one from the CI site that I took the initial recipe from. But don't put your chicken, even cooked, on a wooden cutting board. Ick. 

Anyway, we had planned to make a longer cook, more complicated chicken dish for company (Here if you're interested) and then realized that we had missed our window for getting it started and fell back on this classic. For shopping you're going to need

• 1 (4-pound) whole chicken, giblets discarded; if you go with a bigger chicken I can't guarantee a 1 hour cook time.
• 1 ½ teaspoons vegetable oil for the chicken and another 1 ½ teaspoons for the veggies
• Kosher salt and pepper
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 garlic clove minced/chopped garlic
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1 tbs butter. 
• 1 box couscous of your preference 
• Carrots and Broccoli to make a pound of veggies, or whatever your preferred volume is

Set up your oven so the top rack is about 1 foot away from the broiler -- you don't want to get to close or the chicken skin with scorch - and then butterfly your chicken. We've gone over this before I have faith in you and I have faith in you. Once it's butterflied, use a knife to poke holes in the skin across the whole bird, about 3/4 inch apart. 

Put an broiler safe skillet (I use cast iron, that stuff is indestructible) on the stovetop, add 1 tsp of olive oil, and set it to high. While it heats up, rub the bird down with the remaining 1/2 tsp olive oil, then 1 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. pepper on the skin side, flip it over and repeat 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Flip it back over - it's going in the oven skin side up - and put it on the skillet as as soon as the olive oil just starts to smoke. You'll want as much of the bottom of the chicken touching the pan as you can (hence the concern with a bigger bird). Put it in the oven with the skillet handle facing one of the front corners of the oven. Turn on the broiler and let it cook for 25 minutes. 

While that is happening, chop up the veggies to about 3/4 inch chunks, mix them in a bowl with the olive oil and a pinch of salt. Once everything is covered with oil, put it on a cookie sheet and set it aside. 

At the 25 minute mark, rotate the handle of the skillet to the other corner to more evenly cook the chicken, and add a probe thermometer set to 155F to the thickest part of the breast. This should take 20-30 minutes to hit. 

Once the chicken is at temp, take it out, move it to a carving board, and let it sit for 15 minutes. Turn the over to 425 and toss in the prepared veggie sheet, get the couscous started. Mmmmm, couscous. So fast, so versatile. 

Put the skillet full of chicken juices onto the stovetop on low heat, add the minced garlic, thyme sprigs, and 1/4 cup white wine. Deglaze the pan, getting up any brown crust bits, and let it cook down. Once it's just simmering, whisk in the butter until it melts. You may need to season for more salt, but I generally don't. 

At the end of the 15 minute rest, everything will be good to go. Serve to a grateful family.