Pantry “Broast” Chicken

Braised & Roasted? I’m salivating 🤤

Friends coming over? Craving something decadent but don’t have the will to do something fancy? Is it cold? It actually doesn’t matter. This chicken is not only easy it tastes as though you’ve spent all day cooking it. This bird is both roasted and braised in a broth that pretty much tastes like french onion soup…so, that’s very cool.

Bonus: this recipe requires no unusual ingredients. Almost every ingredient can be found in your pantry. There’s no stuffing, no basting, no marinating—the whole idea is to use whatever alcohol you have left over, like a spare beer you’ll never drink or some old champagne or rosé that is past its prime. Whatever you’ve got it’s good enough for this Broast chicken. Put on some happy music, like Dancing In the Moonlight and get chopping… 

Oh! And you’ll want bread, good bread for sopping up that oniony broth 🤤

---

Pantry “Broast” Chicken Recipe

Serves: 4-5

Prep: 30 minutes

Cooking: 50 minutes

Tools:

• Chefs knife

• Cutting board

• Oven and stove-safe large pot (I use a Dutch oven)

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken (mine was 5.35 lbs)

• 3-4 shallots

• 5-6 garlic cloves

• 3 bay leaves

• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter

• 1 cup white wine 

• 2 cups chicken broth 

• 1 container cherry tomatoes

• Salt & pepper to taste

Substitutions:

• Shallots → 1 large yellow or white onion will do! 

• Chicken broth → Just toss in 2 bouillon cubes and 2 cups of water and you’ll be fine

• Cherry tomatoes → These are completely optional. If you don’t have any on hand, don’t worry, the flavor of the broth with the deglazed wine is so rich. 

• White wine → Whatever white wine you have is fine, you could even use leftover rose, champagne, orange wine, or even a light beer. 

• Pro Tip → What I love about this recipe is that it’s so versatile. If you want to toss in some baby potatoes to roast alongside the chicken, great! Have some celery or fennel you aren’t sure what to do with, toss it in. The base of this wine broth is delicious regardless of what you add, you can’t fail.

The Deets:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 

The only prep we’re going to do on this chicken is pat it dry and cover it generously in some coarse salt and let it sit on the counter as we chop our shallots and garlic—this will act as a dry brine for the chicken but without all the extra work ahead of time. 

As your little bird sits in its dry salt rub, chop garlic and shallots. Shallots can be diced in ½ inch cubes. No need to be precious about it. Coat the bottom of your Dutch oven with a generous amount of olive oil (until the bottom is fully covered) and toss in the 2 Tbsp of butter and let melt on medium-to-low-heat. Once butter starts sizzling, lower the heat if you notice your butter is starting to brown. Use tongs to gently place the chicken breast-side down into the pot. Allow the chicken skin to get nice and golden, may take about 7 or so minutes for each side. The more patient you are, the better. Don’t play with the flame either! Leave the medium-to-low-heat be and let that skin sizzle. 

Once both sides of the chicken are nicely golden brown, gently remove from the pot and place on the side for a moment as we get the broth going. Do not scrape the bottom of the pot! Instead, pour in your cup of white wine of choice and deglaze whatever leftover little chicken fat remnants there are. Allow alcohol to boil at medium-high heat for a minute or so before lowering the heat to a simmer. Add in your shallots, garlic, bay leaves and broth. Add a crack of pepper to the broth mixture. If you have cherry tomatoes available, toss those in now before adding the chicken back into the broth. Add a crack of pepper to the top of the chicken as well and then cover your pot and place it in the oven. 

Cook chicken covered in the pot for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes, take off the cover and let cook in the oven for another 7-10 minutes depending on how hot your oven gets. My oven runs on the hotter side so my chicken is finished around minute 8! 

After cooking the chicken uncovered for those additional minutes, take it out of the oven and place it back on the stove. Gently take out the chicken from the pot and let it rest on a cutting board for a few minutes—try not to rip the skin as you do this! Bring the leftover stock in the pot to a simmer and taste-test it! The flavor should be rich, French onion soup-like with its ratio between shallots and fattiness. The flavor will deepen as it keeps cooking but if you feel it is still missing some fatty love, feel free to add in a little knob of butter, and some more salt or pepper. I find my broth is always quite salty from the chicken brine, but whatever works best for you!

Serve carved slices of chicken with a generous amount of broth and cooked-down tomatoes and shallots in one of those crucial bowl-plates and enjoy this decadent broast of a chicken with some lovely bread on the side for soaking up that decadent broth… Sahtein!  

Here’s me having my regular Friday call with my high school English teacher. Most Fridays we have a chinwag and talk about our writing woes and our favorite books. She came along for the ride this week as I tested out this recipe :)