Weekend Cooking Project - Herbed Roast Chicken

My Cook's Illustrated subscription finally started (note: I provide the link to Amazon and not Cook's Illustrated website because when I first tried to subscribe via their website I got bombarded by Cook's telemarketers trying sell me all of their gazillion products so stopped it and decided to buy through Amazon instead) and I received the September/October issue earlier this week. It's got several interesting recipes, like a creamy tomato soup that uses bread instead of cream for the creaminess... and an intriguing "pizza bianca" that seems sorta like focaccia but apparently isn't... however, the recipe I plan to try is the Herbed Roast Chicken. Basically because I really like to butterfly a chicken for some odd reason. It also has the fun of browning the butterflied chicken in a pan on the stove top before putting it in the oven, which I also enjoy. I also get to try a roux again, though this will be of the light variety for thickening the sauce.

So I think on Saturday I'll head over to Savenor's and get another of those expensive air-chilled chicken... since I haven't been cooking that much, and skimping on ingredient quality has had some disappointing results lately, I don't feel so bad about splurging on the chicken (unless I screw it up, of course).

The ingredient list is so:

• 1 Chicken (5 lbs or less) - I will go much less as (3-4 lbs) since bigger chickens have less flavor
• 1/2 cup salt for the brine - No sugar? Hmmm...
• 1/4 cup tarragon leaves (fresh)
• 1 tablespoon thyme - Don't need to buy that thanks to the herb garden
• 6 scallions - Only the green parts, so maybe I'll use the white in a salad?
• 1 medium garlic clove
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1-1.5 cups chicken broth
• 2 teaspoons unbleached flour
• 1 lemon

So certainly not a daunting list. I'll have to figure out what to make as a side dish though... unfortunately I won't get to a Farmer's Market before Sunday. Pretty much everything is in season, but I'm not really sure what would be good here. I'll have to brainstorm.