Everyone has a favorite comfort food. For Steve and I it varies but when we are busy, worn out, stressed, etc., we resort to roast chicken. This is a meal we serve for the two of us or even for company, usually once a week and surprisingly, it’s always a treat. We never seem to tire of it.
One day on the Food 52 site I spied one of their genius recipes for Jamie Oliver’s Chicken in Milk. Now I love Jamie Oliver and I have many of his books, including this classic: Happy Days with the Naked Chef, Hachette Books 2002. I have to be honest, I’ve had the book for years and this recipe never tempted me. Not once. Chicken roasted in milk, lemon zest, and cinnamon – seriously? The combination seemed a bit weird, even to me. Having the perfect roast chicken as a staple in my repertoire, I dismissed it. Reading the rave reviews of Food 52, thankfully I decided to give it a shot. The chicken was amazing and creates a totally different flavor profile than my old standby. Now I happily interchange the recipes depending on my mood. We serve this to guests and they always ask for the recipe and that is the best endorsement ever!
It’s always nice to have options and this is a lovely variation.
Monica, I think that I might have though the same thing you did about the recipe a few years ago. I think I would have questioned the milk and the cinnamon. I have tried chicken with cinnamon and it came out much better than I thought it would. We often have roasted chicken on Sunday and, just like you, we have it almost every week and find it to be the perfect comfort food. I know I will be giving this a try.
This sounds like a really good recipe. I keep kosher, though, and we don’t mix meat and milk together so I would substitute soy milk for the milk. I look forward to trying this soon!
Oh this looks good! I would never have thought about about cooking a chicken in milk. But after seeing your pictures and reading your review I really think I need to try it!