Roast Chicken with Lemon, Garlic, Fresh Bay Leaves, Lemon Roasted Yukon Gold Potatoes, Butter Lettuce, Green Peas and Pink Peppercorn Beurre Blanc

Roast Chicken with lemon roasted baby Yukon Gold potatoes served on butter lettuce with green peas and a pink peppercorn beurre blanc was on the menu for dinner last night.  Why the fancy sauce?  Just to enjoy something different  from the normal evening fare. We roast a whole organic chicken a couple of times every month and usually have it with a green salad, crusty baguette and a glass of wine.  I was inspired to create this adaption of a roast chicken dinner from Tyler Florence's book, Dinner At My Place.  This is a cookbook that features recipes and menus for good down home cooking Bay Area style for friends and family.  Tyler Florence lives in Mill Valley and opened a wildly popular restaurant, The Wayfare Tavern, a block away from our office in San Francisco's financial district.
Too bad for us but nice for them that it's so crowded after work, it's not easy to get a seat at the bar and the tables fill up fast.  We've enjoyed a few good meals there and especially love the house made fresh popovers they bring to the table when you're seated.  Before we walk over we usually  look around the corner of our building at the front of the restaurant and say, way too crowded!  But, that's okay, not really, because now I have his cookbook which is full of good recipes and photos.  So his chicken dinner for family and friends spoke to me, especially the part where the buerre blanc sauce gets drizzled over the top of everything.  This is a dish that is fun to make with a few simple components to pull together right before serving, nothing too complicated.

Ingredients and Directions for Roast Chicken with Lemon, Garlic, Fresh Bay Leaves, Lemon Roasted Yukon Gold Potatoes, Butter Lettuce, Green Peas and Pink Peppercorn Buerre Blanc

Ingredients for the roast chicken

1 5 pound organic roasting chicken

1 Meyer Lemon, cut in half

1 head of garlic, cut all the way through just below the top

4 to 5 fresh bay leaves

8 sprigs fresh thyme

Extra virgin olive oil

Ingredients for the lemon roasted Yukon Gold potatoes

2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 fresh rosemary sprig, leaves only
2 fresh thyme sprigs, leaves only
1 Meyer lemon, cut into quarters
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Ingredients for the salad 

1 large head of butter lettuce, washed and leaves separated
1 cup fresh garden peas or frozen peas


Ingredients for the pink peppercorn beurre blanc

1 cup dry white wine
1 shallot, minced
6-8 pink peppercorns
1 fresh bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 stick unsalted butter
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper


Preheat the oven to 400 degrees

Rinse the chicken with cool water and pat dry.  Season the inside with sea salt and pepper.  Fill the cavity with the lemon, garlic, thyme sprigs and bay leaves.  Tie the legs together with twine.  Rub the outside of the bird with olive oil, season with sea salt and pepper.  Set aside.
Pour the 2 tablespoons of olive oil into the bottom of an oven proof pan, large enough to hold all the spuds and the bird.  Wash the potatoes and add to the oil in the baking pan with the lemon quarters, rosemary, thyme, sea salt and pepper.  Toss everything together to mix.

Place the chicken on top of the potatoes  and roast for approximately one hour and thirty minutes.  Reduce the oven heat to 350 after about 15 minutes.  Remove the chicken from the oven and let rest for at least 10 minutes before cutting into pieces for serving.

In a large bowl combine the butter lettuce leaves and fresh peas., set aside.  Prepare the beurre blanc while the chicken is cooling on the counter.  In a medium saucepan combine the wine, shallot, peppercorns, bay leaf and sea salt.  Bring the sauce to a simmer and continue cooking until the sauce is syrupy and coats the bottom of the saucepan.  Add the butter in slices, a few at a time, while whisking to thicken the sauce.  Add sea salt and pepper to taste.

Plate each serving by placing a handful of lettuce and peas on each plate.  Add a few pieces of chicken and potatoes.  Drizzle with the beurre blanc and serve.  This amount should serve 4 people generously.