Author: Rowling, J.K.
Book: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
Difficulty rating: Harry Potter
Deliciousness rating: Outstanding
Did it measure up?
Miko: Guys, I had no idea just how easy roasting a chicken was. It sounds like such a daunting task. It does take quite a bit of time to roast, but a beginning cook could totally do it. And the potatoes! I’ll let Jenne expound on the deliciousness of these potatoes.
Jenne: The potatoes were, dare I say it, magical. Fluffy inside and crisp outside…Cam says it’s important to peel the potatoes to get the right texture. And of course letting them sizzle in the chicken fat doesn’t hurt at all.
ROAST CHICKEN & POTATOES
Ingredients:
- Whole chicken
- 5 cloves garlic, chopped
- Leaves from six 6-inch pieces of rosemary
- Potatoes (we used Yukon Gold)
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Black pepper
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375 F.
- Put the chicken in the middle of a baking pan.
- Mix chopped garlic and rosemary leaves together on the cutting board.
- Lift up the skin and put the garlic and rosemary mixture underneath, spreading it out as much as you can.
- Drizzle olive oil over the chicken and rub it in, all over.
- Sprinkle quite a bit of salt — a little more than a teaspoon on the top, and then flip it over and sprinkle with another teaspoon. Grind pepper all over the chicken.
- Peel the potatoes and cut them in thirds. Drizzle with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and put them around the chicken in the pan.
- Roast for an hour and a half, or 20 minutes per pound of chicken. Our OBF Cam eschews the use of meat thermometers; she says you’ll have overcooked chicken every time if you wait till it’s at a “safe” temperature.
- Pour the drippings into a gravy boat.
BREAD SAUCE
Based on Cam’s childhood memories & adapted from Forgotten Skills of Cooking: The Time-Honored Ways are the Best – Over 700 Recipes Show You Why
Cam insisted on her beloved bread sauce as a traditional accompaniment to our roast for the full British experience. She had extolled its virtues while we made our Christmas pudding, and of course we felt we had to try it.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups whole milk
- 2.5 cups bread crumbs
- 2 whole onions (We used a big onion cut in half, but we discovered that it all fell apart while cooking, which meant Cam had to fish out bits of onion from the sauce before serving. She recommends small whole onions instead.)
- 12ish whole cloves
- 2 tbs butter
- Salt
- Black pepper
- 4 tbs cream
Directions:
- Peel the onions and stick it with cloves. (Miko: I had NO IDEA what on earth this meant until Cam demonstrated. Basically, you are making an onion hedgehog with cloves for spines.)
- Put all the ingredients except the cream in a small, deep saucepan. Bring to a boil.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Cover and gently simmer over very low heat for 30 mins. Remove the onion and add cream just before serving.
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. London: Bloomsbury, 1997.
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. New York: Scholastic Inc., 1997.
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. London: Bloomsbury, 2003.
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. New York: Scholastic Inc., 2003.
36 Eggs 