Roast Chicken with Sautéed Vegetables

I read Maurice Sendak’s obituary through blurry eyes on Wednesday, thinking of my childhood hero for the first time in a while, although he’s never too far from my heart.

With little Gigi snuggled in my lap, her hair mussed from sleep, we poured over the New York Times’ tribute to Sendak. She pointed to “Where the Wild Things Are” are and murmured, “I have that book,” proud of herself, and then, in the next breath, “Can we get that one, and that one?” as she dragged her finger over images of “In the Night Kitchen” and “Outside Over There.” I thought of my second-hand copies of his lesser known illustrations found in “The Juniper Tree and Other Tales from Grimm,”
where his trademark goblins take on human form and vice versa, and replied, “Of course.”

So it was with misty-eyed melancholy that I opened the food section to be greeted by Melissa Clark’s spread-eagle chicken. And I laughed out loud, memories of old mingling with a bird which, in its normal state, is funny enough, but when spread-eagled on a bed of ramps, well, you really can’t help but laugh.

And so, with shopping list in hand, I headed back to Trader Joe’s for the second time in three days, eager to add to my South Beach Diet Phase 1 recipe repertoire. The fact that the produce guy at Trader Joe’s had never heard of ramps (Melissa’s addition of greens to her chicken) didn’t deter me. I grabbed a package of pre-sliced mushrooms, asparagus and onions, a five-pound kosher chicken and a few lemons. Into the cart they went, along with a few heads of garlic.

Much like Sendak, since going South Beach, I’ve had to call on my creativity at levels I didn’t know existed. Seriously – I had no idea how much I relied on carbs and sugars until eliminating them from my diet; my longing for oranges and grapes is stronger than I experienced when giving up beer (to go gluten-free).

I followed Melissa’s method for snapping and splaying the chicken’s legs; I’m also in agreement with her on high-heat roasting (not to mention the use of cast iron cookware
whenever possible). But because ramps weren’t available I improvised and added a head of garlic with the top cut off, hoping it would roast to perfection along with the chicken (which it did).

Once roasted to a lovely brown, I let the chicken rest while I sautéed the vegetables in the juice of the chicken – one pan cookery at its best. After a 10-minute sauté, I drained the vegetables and used the drippings as a kind of gravy (flour-free, of course). While there’s enough chicken and vegetables for two in this recipe, the gravy really is enough for only one person: the chef.

As I photographed the bird and moved it about the kitchen in its cast iron pan, I thought again and again of “Where the Wild Things” are, of Max, sent to bed without supper; of the beasts that he tames; and of the hot dinner that awaits him when he returns.

Melissa asks if we really need another recipe for roast chicken. When it’s something that warms the heart, feeds the stomach, brings smiles to a husband tired at the end of a long day, and makes a six-year old laugh as I claim to be a beast and she Max, the answer is yes.