A road trip and Roast Chicken Provençal

Chicken thighs are browned, then roasted with shallots, lemons, garlic and what sounds like way too much herbes de Provence. It isn’t. Recipe below.

Last week, I wrote about how we would spend Christmas. Christmas Eve dinner in Chinatown (at Lao Shanghai—delicious), a movie Christmas day (Spotlight, a surprisingly uplifting film for such a heavy subject) and a simple roast chicken dish for dinner. It was good. The dish you see above was my second attempt, cooked last night with a few tweaks. It was very good.

In between the two cookings, we went to Detroit for the weekend. This trip has nothing to do with the recipe below, other than giving me some time to think about how I might change it up. I won’t be upset if you skip the trip story and scroll down to the recipe—honestly, I won’t know, will I? But we love Detroit. What it was, what it is, what it’s becoming. You can see some of each of these wherever you go in the city.

A stellar example of this is the Detroit Institute of Arts Museum. It is one of America’s great art museums, with a fabulous collection built, in part, with automobile money. A major exhibition last spring, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Detroit, celebrated some of that past. 30 Americans, the show we went to see this visit, celebrates the now and the future, showcasing works produced by African American artists in the last 30 years. Some of these artists are just breaking big right now, helping reshape art.

The painting above, Sleep, is by New York-based artist Kehinde Wiley. In his large scale paintings, Wiley uses the style—and sometimes the poses—found in European Old Masters’ works to examine the status of young African American men in contemporary culture. Wiley has four works in the show. There are also two paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat.

One of the big surprises for us was Mickalene Thomas. Her images, often rich with patterns and created with flat planes of color embellished with sequins, empower her African American women subjects. 30 Americans runs through January 18 at the Detroit Institute of Arts. See it if you can.

As always, there was wonderful food in Detroit. This visit, we passed on our usual favorite restaurants in favor of three new-to-us spots. First, there was Rock City Eatery, actually in Hamtramck, a small municipality inside the city of Detroit. It promises food, booze and pie. We can thoroughly vouch for the first two, but were too happily full to even attempt any pie. I had their signature mac and cheese, served in a crisp, thin, edible Parmesan bowl.

We also made it to Honest John’s, one of the last old school holdouts in a rapidly developing Midtown. The music was loud in this bar/restaurant, the atmosphere friendly and the food cheap and delicious. Oh, and there was neon. SOBRIETY SUCKS and MEN LIE pretty much set the tone.

Sunday lunchtime found us in line at New Center Eatery. In this legendary Detroit spot, you order at the counter, but not until they have a booth or table lined up for you. Your comfort food will soon follow. Fried catfish, chicken and waffles, French toast, scrambles with andouille sausage… If we lived in Detroit, we would work our way through the entire menu.

Meanwhile back at the Roast Chicken Provençal. This wasn’t going to be a post. It was just going to be Christmas dinner. I found a promising recipe in the New York Times and followed it. Made some mashed potatoes and sautéed spinach. Marion made a delicious gravy. Marion’s sister Lena brought ice cream, fresh raspberries and walnuts for dessert. Wine and conversation flowed freely around our little kitchen table.

But I wanted the chicken to be, I don’t know, more. The recipe promised crisp skin, even though it didn’t call for skillet browning. For me, that always does the trick. So I tweaked a little last night, changing just a few things. And I think I got it right, at least for us.

Both recipes call for a crazy amount of herbes de Provence. Trust the Times and me on this. Yes, it is big and in your face with this dish. And it is perfect.

Roast Chicken Provençal
Adapted from the New York Times
Serves 2 with potential leftovers (can be doubled—see Kitchen Notes)

4 chicken thighs, bone-in and skin-on
salt and freshly ground black pepper
flour for dredging
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 medium-to-large shallots, peeled and quartered
1/2 lemon, sliced vertically into 4 wedges
4 large cloves garlic, peeled and lightly whacked with the side of a knife to just crack open
1 tablespoon herbes de Provence
1/4 cup dry vermouth (or 2 tablespoons each lemon juice and water)

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Trim excess fat from chicken thighs and season generously with salt and pepper. Dredge in flour, shaking off excess. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil over medium-high flame in a large, ovenproof sauté pan. Add chicken to pan, skin side down, and cook undisturbed until golden brown, 5 to 7 minutes.

Turn chicken and remove from heat. (If the chicken produces lots of fat, transfer thighs to a plate, drain all but 2 tablespoons of fat and return thighs, skin side up, to pan.) Gently toss shallots, lemon slices and garlic with remaining tablespoon of olive oil in a medium bowl. Arrange shallot mixture around chicken thighs in pan. Sprinkle herbes de Provence over everything and pour vermouth into the pan.

Transfer pan to oven and roast for about 20 minutes, basting chicken with pan juices halfway through. Chicken should be thoroughly done at this point, but check with an instant read thermometer; meat should be at least 165ºF in the thickest part of the thigh. Transfer to a platter and serve. Be sure to eat the shallots—they are tender, sweet and delicious.

Kitchen Notes

Doubling up. If you don’t have a skillet large enough to handle a double recipe, brown the chicken in batches, then transfer it to an oiled roasting pan. Pretty much double all the ingredients except for the oil.