Artichoke & Peperoncini Roasted Spring Chicken
What a joy it is when most of the ingredietns in a dish are pantry staples. These feature a lot of marinated products, that do most of the heavy lifting for you, providing intense and amazing flavours.
The spatchcocked chicken is placed on top of the artichokes, capers, olives and sliced lemon, and the receive all those amazing drippings, effectively making the most delicious pan sauce.
The whole thing then gets served with fresh parsley and whole peperoncini peppers, waking everything up and giving the final dish a tangy and electrifying jolt.
The whole thing takes less than 45 mins to prep. One of the best, easy and accessible weeknight dinners I’ve put together.
ingredients:
1 whole chicken
1 jar of brined capers (100g)
1 jar, marinated artichoke hearts (350g approx)
3 lemons
1 cup fresh parsley sprigs
1 cup olives (halved)
3 tbsp Kosher salt
3 tbsp Granulated sugar
1 cup golden Peperoncini (whole)
Extra virgin olive oil
instructions:
We’ll start by spatchocking the chicken. Using a pair of sharp kitchen scissors or sheers, flip the bird so that it’s breast side down, and as you locate the spine, cut through either side of it. You’ll be cutting though the ribs so some strength and snapping is expected. Once you’re done, you should be left with one long spine, which you can save later to make stock, and a chicken the can be opened at the rib cage.
Flip the bird again so that it’s breast side up, open the bottom side as much as possible, and then place your palms on top of each other on the center of the breast, and use your body wait to flatten the chicken. You want the bottom part of the breast to be touching the plate or cutting board, instead of being lifted like before you took out the spine.
Mix your sugar and salt in a small plate. Pat your chicken dry with a hand towel and then start sprinkling the entire bird with your salt and sugar mixture. Once done, keep in a plate without covering and place in the fridge. (You can keep your chicken like this in the fridge for up to 24 hours, if you need to stop here).
Preheat your oven to 325F.
In a large pan, combine your artichoke hearts (with their liquid), your capers (drained) and the halved olives.
Cut two lemons in 1 inch rounds, and make sure you remove all the seeds. (Seeds will make the final dish bitter). Add to the pan.
Take your parsley sprigs and cut only the stems, you’ll reserve the leafs for later. Chop the stems finely and add to the pan.
Mix everything in the pan very well.
Take out your chicken and place it in the pan on top of your artichoke, lemon mixture.
Let the chicken come up to room temperature for about 10 to 15 minutes before putting in the oven. This will make it cook more evenly.
Roast in the middle wrack for 90 minutes, rotating the pan 180 degrees halfway through.
After the 90 minute mark, take the temperature of the middle part of the breast. It will be hotter than the necessary 165F, this is OK, since it´s been almost braising in it’s own drippings and on top of the juicy artichokes. This will prevent it from drying out. What you’re looking for is for the skin to be intensely golden and for there to be some dark spots where the sugar caramelized. These spots will provide amazing depth of flavour and complexity.
Transfer your chicken when ready to a second plate to let cool.
What’s behind in the pan, you’ll dress with one glug of fresh olive oil, the juice from your third lemon and the parsley leafs, very roughly chopped, mix everything together.
Once your chicken is cool enough to handle, carve so that you have two breasts, two legs and two wings (You can separate the thighs from the legs so that you’re left with 8 pieces but I like leaving them as is).
Plate the chicken on top of the lemon, artichoke dressing and decorate finally with whole peperoncini, interspersed through out the dish.
