Hot Jam Chicken

A bold flavor from Stonewall Kitchen.

If three or more things are needed at the grocery, we make a list. And jam was on the list -- as in jam for our usual breakfast of local eggs, English muffins, juice, yogurt, and free-range coffee. This fuels our mornings without overfilling us, and most importantly does not require us to make decisions early on a weekday. Aside from deciding whether to add jam or not. In any case, jam was on the list, and I got a nice one from Stonewall Kitchens (we get much more local when we can, but this is our go-to). When reaching for the jar of strawberry-peach, I noticed its shelf neighbor: pineapple sriracha.

That looks terrific, I thought, but it might be a bit much for breakfast, where Tabasco on the eggs is sufficient heat for me. Plus, my bride is not a huge fan of pineapple. I picked it up though, knowing that I could do something with this and poultry.

And indeed I did! I selected a day when I knew I would be home a couple hours ahead of Pam, and made a plan to get started that morning -- which was today. I whisked a generous dollop of sriracha sauce and a generous shake of salt into a large bowl of milk. Yes, milk. I then rinsed a small, organic chicken and placed it in the bowl, adding a bit more milk to submerge the chicken. I placed the bowl in the fridge and then headed out for a full day of teaching. All day I was brining as well, without even thinking about it!

When I got home, I noticed that the tiny bit of chicken above the milk line was not soaking, so I turned the bird over and put it back in the fridge for another hour.

Then I got to work, first turning the oven on to convection at 375F.  In a small saucepan over low heat, I stirred together about 1/4 cup each of honey and the pineapple sriracha jam, until a thick sauce formed.

I then filled the well of our upright ceramic chicken roaster with port and sherry. We happened to have a smidge of the latter, so I emptied it into the well first. The well only holds about a half cup of liquid, which of course will moisten the chicken from its interior cavity. I placed the chicken onto the support (which contained the wines) and then spooned the sauce over it, covering the chicken as well as I could. I tucked the ends of the wings into small notches I made in the chicken "armpit" so that they would not get singed.

I placed it in the oven at 375 for about 45 minutes. I then chopped a few small potatoes into 1/2-inch dice and placed them in a casserole, where I coated them with olive oil, salt, pepper, and oregano. Looking at an earlier use of the upright roaster, I am now reminded that I could have placed the potatoes in the same pan as the chicken. The casserole, of course, resulted in a slightly crisp potato side, which I have made a staple of my cooking.

I continued on convection, lowered to 350, for about another hour. I would recommend checking for doneness by the usual means (clear-running juices or an internal temperature of 165), but I did not do so because the battery was dead in our kitchen thermometer. That does not excuse my failure to pierce the skin to inspect juices, but I just knew that we had lucked into perfect timing.

I transferred the chicken and potatoes to a platter and found that the chicken was so tender that it nearly carved itself. Crispity as could be on the outside and succulent on the inside, this was a very fine roast, and its sweet-hot flavor paired deliciously with the Provence rose that I had chilled.

Total time: 10 hours; Active time: total of 30 minutes (10 minutes each of three times)