Bacon Roasted Garlic Chicken with Vegetable Puree and the Sucre Milk Chocolate Collection Giveaway

Got BACON!

Thank you everyone for making Casserole Week with Creole Contessa, a huge success.  In honor of great food, and wonderful foodie friends, I created my Bacon Roasted Garlic Chicken with a Vegetable Puree.

And don't forget you still have time to enter (entry at the bottom of page) the Sucre Milk Chocolate Collection Giveaway!
 

This recipe is real simple, but the flavors are wonderfully, complex. Instead of using a roasting pan rack, I allowed the vegetables to act as my rack, keeping the chicken from touching the pan juices, and in the end, giving us a moist, juicy, don't forget, smokey chicken.

The bacon created a barrier around the chicken that turns out the moistest, juiciest, roasted chicken you will ever eat!

To create the vegetable puree, I reserved the vegetables from the chicken, along with the pan juices, added everything to the blender with a couple of pieces of bacon and blended it really well, until pureed.

Next, I added the pureed vegetables, chicken stock, heavy cream and a little butter and allowed the magic to happen.

Does this not look fabulous! You see a little crispy parts on the bacon, blame it on Big Goo...he turned the oven to broil because he said he wanted the bacon, extra crispy. I caught him just in time...please don't follow his lead on this...the bacon was perfect before Big Goo...lol.

The vegetable puree is delicious and turned out great, and I used it to dip some crusty French bread...o.k. I almost dipped a whole loaf of French bread, but who can blame me!

Now, just like me, I bet you want to grab this piece of chicken off the screen...And the extra piece of bacon, that happened to wrap itself around the drumstick doesn't hurt!

Bacon Roasted Garlic Chicken with Vegetable Puree

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours
Servings: 4

Ingredients:

1 whole free range chicken about 4 lbs
1 pack thick cut bacon
1 stick butter, room temperature
5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons creole seasonings
3 tablespoons garlic powder
3 tablespoons onion powder
2 tablespoons black pepper
1 tablespoon dried oregano, crushed
1 lemon, zested, juiced
10 cloves garlic
1/2 bunch of celery
1 medium white onion
1 bunch of carrots

For the Vegetable Puree

Roasted Vegetables plus pan juices
1 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons of heavy cream
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon creole seasoning

Directions: 

Mix seasoning blend together and set aside.

To prepare the chicken, rinse chicken under cold water, remove gizzards from inside the cavity, rinse again. Pat dry chicken and set aside.

In a large roasting pan add celery, carrots, and onion. Chop in half if needed. Season vegetables with about 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of seasoning blend, mix well create a raised bed for the vegetables to prevent the chicken from resting in the pan juices that will form.

Place chicken on top of vegetables, breast side up, rub butter all over chicken, under the skin of chicken and place remaining butter in cavity of chicken.

Pour olive oil all over chicken, under the skin of chicken, and a little in the cavity.

Season chicken with seasoning blend all over, under the skin and in the cavity.

Place garlic, under the chicken skin, add remaining garlic in the pan with the vegetables.

Lastly, sprinkle lemon zest and juice over chicken skin, under the skin and place lemon peel in the cavity and under the chicken breast skin.

Now take the thick cut bacon and place on top of chicken, breast side up. Sprinkle with extra seasoning blend.

Tent roasting pan with foil and roast chicken at 450 degrees for 1 hour 20 minutes, remove foil and continue roasting chicken for 20-25 more minutes are until bacon is crisp and clear juices run out of chicken when cut between the leg and thigh area.

Remove chicken from oven and place on a platter, re tint with foil and allow chicken to rest around 20 minutes before serving. 

To prepare vegetable puree,  remove all the vegetables from roasting pan along with pan juices and place into a blender. Add a couple of slices of bacon from the chicken to the blender. Blend well, until pureed.

Transfer mixture to a pan, over medium high heat, add chicken broth and seasonings, bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and medium low and cook puree for about 7 minutes, reduce heat to low, add cream and butter and whisk well.

Simmer for about 5 more minutes and serve.

 

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