Citrus Roasted Chicken

One of my favorite pieces of cookware is the All-Clad Ultimate Chicken Roaster from Williams-Sonoma. This pan has a liquid well in the arm that holds the chicken up that you can fill with beer, wine, stock or anything else you dream up. It also allows your vegetables to brown while still coating them in the wonderful chicken drippings.

For this recipe, marinate the chicken for 24 hours in a dry brine then rinse, pat dry and rub the skin with olive oil. Fill the well on the roasting arm with white wine and place the chicken on the arm, breast side down. (I prefer breast side down for more moist breast, if you prefer crispy skin, place the chicken breast side up.) Then fill the cavity of the chicken with slices from half a lemon and one whole orange. Using kitchen twine, tie the legs together. Toss potatoes, baby turnips, garlic cloves, and onion in olive oil, salt and pepper and place the pan under the chicken. Insert a probe thermometer into the thickest part of the breast and roast in a 425 degree oven until the thermometer reads ~160 degrees. Let the chicken rest 10 minutes before cutting. Top the vegetables with fresh parsley before serving. Any root or sturdy vegetable can be used in this recipe, just make sure the vegetables in ~1" pieces to allow for even cooking.

Tri-tip with sauteed greens & mashed potatoes

We love meat and potatoes and there's no meat that says "California" like tri-tip. I, like most people from the east coast, had never heard of it until I moved to California. It's a triangle-shaped cut of beef from the bottom of the sirloin that weighs 1.5 - 3 pounds and cooks great on the grill. For this one, we marinated it for 3 hours in cumin, grill seasoning, onion powder, garlic, red wine vinegar, hot sauce and a little A1, then grilled it until medium rare. I served it with a bunch swiss chard that I sauteed in 2 tbsp of garlic infused olive oil and yukon gold potatoes that I mashed with half and half, horseradish and butter. The plate was garnished with a few spring onion tops.