Not Just Another Chicken & Potato Dinner

I've seen the potato recipe recently on the WC Board, so I decided to give it a try, I'm always looking for new ways to make potatoes, while keeping it a little lighter, without all the butter & cream. Although it looks like a gigantic mess of potatoes, they were REALLY good, a little crispy on the outside, yet soft in the inside & bursting with flavor from the fresh herbs. Check out The Pioneer Woman's Blog for this and other recipes (although I have not made any other recipes), her blog is really unique. As for the chicken, I love lemon chicken, so I decided to experiment by adding lime & orange flavors.

Triple Citrus Herbed Chicken

4lb whole chicken
salt & pepper
head of garlic, halved
1-2 cloves garlic, chopped
a few sprigs of fresh Italian parsley, some left whole, some chopped
juice and zest of 1 lemon, divided
juice and zest of half a lime, divided
1-2 tbsp Sonoma Pepper (lemon orange pepper blend from World Market)
extra virgin olive oil (1/4-1/3 cup)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Rinse chicken, pat dry. Season inside of chicken with salt & pepper.
In a small bowl, mix some lemon juice/zest, lime juice/zest, olive oil, salt, Sonoma Pepper and chopped parsley in a bowl. Rub mixture under breast skin, (and the chopped garlic), the outside and inside of chicken. Put some garlic, sprigs of parsley, and halves of lemon & lime inside of chicken.

Place chicken in a roaster & cover. Roast for about 2 hours (or until internal temperature reaches 180 degrees), basting a few times with juices. If desired, add a little chicken stock.

I served the chicken and potatoes with some garlic pan roasted broccoli.

Crash Hot Potatoes

Pioneer woman writes her recipes a little differently, so these instructions are adapted from her version

2 lbs of baby red potatoes (or how much you need), scrubbed clean
a few sprigs of freshly chopped flat leaf parsley & basil (from my garden!)
salt & pepper
extra virgin olive oil for drizzling and basting
Preheat the oven to 450. (I made the chicken following this recipe, so I added them to the already hot oven and cooked around 425)

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil, and add potatoes.

When the potatoes are tender, drain. Drizzle olive oil on a cookie sheet and place the potatoes on it and give plenty of room to spread out. (Looking at the picture, I didn't listen to this mine were too close together, but still turned out great)

Use a potato masher and gently press down on the potato until it slightly mashes.

Then rotate the masher 90 degrees and finish flattening it. Of course, you don’t want to absolutely smash it into the pan—you want it almost to resemble a cookie.

Repeat until all are flattened. Next, brush the tops rather generously with olive oil.

Next, sprinkle the potatoes with sea salt or Kosher salt, and freshly ground pepper. Add some chopped fresh herbs. (I used some fresh basil & parsley, but rosemary would be wonderful) Now throw them onto the top rack of a very hot (450-degree) oven, and cook them for 20-25 minutes. (Mine needed a little less than 20 minutes) Or until they’re golden and crispy and sizzling.