Chicken and Potatoes French Chef Style

When I was a Girl Scout in the fourth grade, I was invited to my friend Anne Marie's house to work on my cooking badge. With the help of the other girls in my troop, we made an entire meal from start to finish: roasted chicken, green beans and baked potatoes. We then sat down as a troop (there were 6 of us) along with Anne Marie's big family (there were 8 of them) at their huge dining room table to eat the dinner that we had prepared.
(Junior Girl Scout)

As a kid, I usually approached my eating in an airline-food-compartmentalized way. Nothing should be touching and I always liked to start with my least favorite food-in this case, green beans- and finish with my favorite-in this case the potato. I loved potatoes-still do-and I couldn't wait to eat the entire potato I had lovingly saved for last. I filled the potato with probably more butter than I should have and began eating. I will never forget the family's looks of horror when I finished the white of the potato and then casually moved on to devour the skin. Was eating the skin wrong? I had always eaten the skin. The skin had texture, flavor...it was good...I loved the skin! Embarrassed by my seemingly obvious lack of dining class, I pushed the skin aside and waited, red faced, for dessert to be served. I often wonder today, now that it is common knowledge that the skin is the most nutritious part of the potato, if Anne Marie's family ever started eating the skins.


Dinner tonight pays homage to my Girl Scout dinner. At the supermarket I found some fabulous gourmet mixed baby potatoes-purple, white and red by Melissas. They are going to be the base for a roasted chicken and potato recipe that I have been anxious to try.

A couple of weeks ago Martha Stewart had French chef Jean Georges Vongerichten on her TV show and he prepared a Roasted Chicken with Roasted Yukon Gold Potatoes, this is his recipe except instead of the Yukon Gold Potatoes I used the mixed gourmet potatoes-skin and all.

Roasted Chicken over Roasted Tri-Color Potatoes

6 tablespoons unsalted butter
6 tablespoons olive oil
2 lbs. mixed gourmet potatoes, quartered
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 roasting chicken
1 chicken liver
4 sprigs fresh rosemary
4 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bulb garlic, cut in half crosswise
Fleur de sel, for serving


1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Butter a large oven safe skillet or roasting pan with 3 tablespoons butter and 3 tablespoons oil. Place potatoes in a single layer in roasting pan. Season chicken inside and out with salt and pepper. Place liver, rosemary, thyme, and garlic inside cavity of chicken; using kitchen twine, tie legs together to enclose. Rub chicken with remaining 3 tablespoons each of butter and oil. Place chicken on top of potatoes on one of its sides.
3. Transfer roasting pan to oven and roast for 20 minutes. Turn chicken onto its other side and continue roasting 20 minutes more. Turn chicken, breast side up, continue roasting until juices run clear and the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, 10 to 20 minutes more.
4. Carve chicken in roasting pan allowing the juices to combine with the potatoes. Serve from the roasting pan, spooning pan juices over potatoes. Sprinkle with fleur de sel.



Check out the before and after photos: