Several months ago I found this recipe for roast chicken with crispy drippings croutons, originally posted in The New York Times. During that original attempt, I didn’t follow the directions to the letter and while the chicken turned out fabulously, the croutons were burned to a crisp. It was a depressing sight–that blackened bread. But I vowed I would give it another go. I mean, after all, with this recipe, you can actually make a roast chicken at home on a weeknight! So today I thought it would be a great Monday pick me up. I even had a whole stale baguette to slice up for croutons. And I’m saying STALE. This thing was so hard, I could’ve used it to play baseball. I had to nuke it just to get it soft enough to cut! But anyway, I followed the directions this time, to the letter, and the results were AMAZING. I knew they would be when I saw the original recipe at The Paupered Chef. The only thing I would change is that I’d go with a chicken on the smaller side. This one was over 5 pounds and needed to cook a bit longer to get completely done, which left the croutons a bit more done than I’d have liked, but that definitely did not slow down how quickly they disappeared.
Ingredients:
- 1 chicken
- Stale bread
- olive oil
- 4 tsps minced garlic
- 1 shallot
- kosher salt
- fresh black pepper
Directions:
- Slice your stale bread and layer on the bottom of whatever pan you’re going to be roasting your chicken in.
- Drizzle olive oil over the bread. Sprinkle with salt.
- Wash and pat dry your bird.
- Rub lightly with olive oil.
- Season with kosher salt and ground pepper to taste.
- Cover the heel of the loaf or a slice with minced garlic and stuff into the bird.
- Slice the shallot in half and stuff in the bird (skin and all).
- Place bird on directly top of the layer of bread such that the bread is covered by the chicken.
- Roast at 425 for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until juices run clear when poked with a knife.
- Allow bird to rest for 10-15 minutes (if you can resist the wonderful smell).
- Meanwhile, flip the bread to find the delicious, toasty goodness. Try not to eat all the bread while the chicken is resting.
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