Adventures in cooking, fryer chickens

I roasted a whole fryer chicken the other day, piecing together different recipes to try to get something that interested me. I ended up going with a rosemary/lemon zest rub under the skins, then poured a olive oil/lemon juice mix over the top before hitting the oven. The chicken ended up a little on the dry side (damn it all!) but was pretty good. The killer part about the dish was the gravy.

i browned the chicken in our cast iron skillet first, then it was to the oven. After I poured the vinaigarette over the chicken I sliced an onion and placed it around the chicken. When the chicken was cooked through there was a whole lot of delicious chicken juice simmering away at the bottom of the pan. I pulled the chicken out of the skillet and threw the gravy on the stove top, put it on high and added about 1/3 cup dry vermouth. Reduced down and made one of the best damn chicken gravies I have ever, ever had. It was plenty rich (thank you chicken fat), but balanced by all the lemon juice I threw in. Rosemary for some herbage and the onions which had become deliciously moist put it all together. the white wine helped to bring it down to the right flavor mix, not too heavy, but not light.

Needless to say I've been working off this chicken since tuesday. I've been the happiest so far with my roast chicken sandwhich. Throw the meat on a toasted potato bun, add lettuce, some of the gravy and onions and blue cheese and you are set to go. Sadly the gravy can soggify the bun, but it's so good you can't help but woof down the whole sandwich.

And on to the wine of the evening: Waterbrook Chardonnay 2006

A subtle chardonnay, with some pear aromas and hints of oak. Picking up on some spiciness on the finish, too. Medium bodied mouth feel. Not too shabby for the price.

Bloggers note:
I took a look at the professional tasting notes from Wine Spectator after thinking about this wine in my glass and was pretty much spot on. Must be doing something right...