Secret Glen Chicken with Crispy Potatoes

A familiar, yet surprising, roast chicken inspired by the flavors of Hidden Valley Ranch (see what we did there?) and nestled on a bed of ranch yogurt, crispy potatoes and lettuce. It’s a salad-chicken-lettucewrap-potato party.

Rub for Chicken and Potatoes
4 garlic cloves
1 shallot
1/4 cup fresh parsley
1 tbsp fresh dill
1 tsp white pepper
2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp buttermilk powder
1 tbsp ghee
1 tbsp salt

Ranch Yogurt
2/3 cup Siggis 0% plain yogurt (or other plain thick yogurt)
1 tbsp mayonaise
juice of 1/2 a lemon
2 tbsp fresh dill
1/4 cup fresh parsley
1 tsp white pepper
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp buttermilk powder
1/2 tsp salt

Assembly
1 small chicken (3-4lb)
2lb small round potatoes
1/2 lemon sliced into thin rounds
juice of 1 lemon
1 small head butter lettuce
juice of 1 lemon
salt & pep

TL;DR

• Make the paste: mortar and pestle the garlic, shallot and salt until chunky paste texture; add other ingredients and stir.

• Set aside 2 tbsp of paste for potatoes. Rub the remaining paste all over chicken, under and over skin. Slide thin slices of lemon under the skin of the chicken. Let chicken sit uncovered in fridge for atleast 2 hours and up to overnight.

• Preheat oven to 425º. Put cast iron pan in the oven.

• Rub remaining paste over potatoes.

• Pull castiron out and place the chicken in the center. Arrange the potatoes around the chicken. Return castiron to oven.

• Cook for 45-60 minutes, until chicken reads 160º on an instant read thermometer and skin is brown and crispy.

• Remove pan from oven, remove chicken from pan and let rest to the side.

• Stir potatoes around in schmaltz-y pan. Use the bottom of a glass or jar to smash each potato, directly in cast iron.

• Return castiron to oven and roast potatoes for 10 minutes more. Flip and roast for another 10 minutes.

• Combine ingredients for ranch yogurt.

• To Plate: smear yogurt on plate; top with potatoes in a ring and then leaves of lettuce in the center; squeeze the lemon juice over the lettuce and season with salt and pepper; Place the chicken on top of the lettuce. Serve.

The Deets

This recipe has a lot of steps, it is a labor of love, but stick with it because you will be rewarded. You can fully carve the chicken and serve it with all the elements separate if you are serving a lot of people or looking for a neater experience for a dinner party or such. My favorite way to serve it is to just halve the chicken and stack the elements in layers, to be eaten communally, with the hands like a lettuce wrap.

To make the paste you would ideally use a mortar and pestle. I like to use my japanese suribachi which has little ridges that break up the veggies really well, but other styles of mortar and pestle should work fine as well as long as yours has some texture. You can also use a food processor if you are not into getting an arm workout with your cheffing.

I put the 4 garlic cloves in whole and the 1 shallot sliced 1/4 inch thick. It is really important to add the 1 tbsp salt in this step also because the gritty texture helps break everything down. I find a technique of pounding works best initially, and then you can move to a circular motion as it gets mushy. You are looking for a creamy yet chunky paste. Absolutely no need to get it fully smooth (in fact some medium size chunks of onion will get all caramelized and chewy later and that is def a plus) but it should be “creamy” in texture which will come from the garlic emulsifying.

Do a rough chop on the 1/4 cup of parsley and 1 tbsp of dill and add them to the mortar. Give that a gentle stir. Then add all the other ingredients (1 tsp white pepper, 2 tsp onion powder, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tbsp buttermilk powder, 1 tbsp ghee) and stir until combined. Set aside 2 tbsp of the paste for the potatoes, the rest is for the chicken.

Take your 3-4 lb chicken and use your hands to slide under the skin of the breast and release it from the breast flesh and around the thigh if you can. This is the fun part, now you smear the paste all over the chicken getting a bunch of it under the skin, as well as some on the outside of the skin. The last step on the chicken is to super thinly slice half a lemon (you will use the other half of the lemon later for the ranch yogurt!). Then take these slices and slide them under the skin of the chicken. I usually do 1 slice on each thigh and 2 on each breast. Set the chicken on a baking sheet or tray and park it in the fridge for atleast 2 hours and up to overnight.

Take your chicken out of the fridge about 1-2 hours before you plan to cook so it can come to room temp. Please please do this.

Rub your 2 lbs of little round potatoes with the reserved paste.

Now for the hot bits; Preheat your oven to 425º and place a large castiron pan in the oven to heat up. Once the oven is heated remove the pan - careful, it is really hot!! Place the chicken in the center of the pan, breast side up. Then arrange the potatoes around the sides of the chicken. Pop that baby back in the oven and cook for a while, until a thermometer into the thickest part of the chicken ready 160º (Don’t worry, it will come up the the FDA standard 165º as it rests). I’m not giving a super exact time here as it really depends on your oven, but it is around 45 minutes to an hour generally. the skin should be brown and crispy the chicken firm yet moist.

Remove the pan from the oven, pull the chicken out and set it aside to rest. I don’t cover it as I want to keep that crispy skin crispy.

Time for the fun smushy moment; First toss the potatoes around in the cast iron pan so they get all evenly coated with the schmaltzy goodness that is in there. Then grab a small mason jar and use the bottom of it to gently smash each potato, right in the pan. And please be careful that pan is still really hot! Place the pan back in the oven (which is still on) and roast for around 10 minutes until the bottoms are getting crispy. Then flip the potatoes and roast for another 10 minutes.

Now the cooking is done! Time to make the accouterments and assemble.

The Ranch employs my favorite low-ish fat dip trick, which is to use a 0% fat yogurt as the base of the dip, but just add a little bit of mayonaise to give that unctuous flavor we all love. Making it is very simple; just chop the herbs and mix everything together (2/3 cup Siggis 0% plain yogurt, 1 tbsp mayo, juice of 1/2 a lemon, 2 tbsp fresh dill, 1/4 cup fresh parsley, 1 tsp white pepper, 1 tsp onion powder, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp buttermilk powder, 1/2 tsp salt). Thats it.

Like I said at the beginning, if you are cooking for folks you don’t want to find yourself elbow deep in chicken juices and yogurt in front of, feel free to fully carve the chicken and set everything out on separate serving dishes and let everyone plate themselves. But I like to get messy with this one. It feels like that sortof comfort food that I like to eat with my hands, stooping over a coffee table. But it is versatile, so you do you.

To plate it my way start by swooping a generous layer of ranch yogurt directly on a large plate. Then arrange the crispy potatoes in a circle around the edge, and layer the butter lettuce leaves right in the center on top of the yogurt. Then take another lemon and squeeze it over the lettuce leaves and season them with flaky salt and pepper. Chop the chicken right in half down the middle and plop it on top of the lettuce. Serve the remaining ranch yogurt on the side.

The magic here is the juices from the chicken run down onto the lettuce and mix with the lemon and create a magical dressing, and then of course there is also the ranch beneath. I like to just rip pieces off the chicken and pull the juicy leaves from below and assemble little bites of lettuce wrapped around chicken and potatoes and dipped in ranch. You could also carve the chicken, lay it on the lettuce and then have folks serve off the stacked platter with a big spoon, taking a bit of everything to their plate and knife and forking it. The world is your roast chicken.