Herb Roasted Chicken with Chive Oil Zucchini

I found Pastor Ryan's Herb Roasted Chicken over at The Pioneer Woman and decided to give it a shot. It was the perfect chicken...tasted amazing and very moist.  All done in an hour.  The whole cooking a whole chicken in an hour isn't new to me.  The first recipe my mom emailed to me when I got home from my honeymoon was "Blasted Chicken".  A working lady can still make her man a whole roasted chicken for dinner even after coming home from a long day at work.  Just crank the oven up and sit back with cocktails.  This worked great for the first month of our marriage until I discovered pregnancy and raw meat, especially chicken did not mix well.  Poor Tim went hungry for the next 4.5 months, because nothing mixed well with pregnancy.


The Pioneer Woman documents the cooking of the chicken so beautifully I didn't bother, but here are my  before and after.


Before:

After:

Herb Roasted Chicken

3-4 lb whole chicken

aromatics for stuffing inside the chicken: lemon, garlic, onion

kosher salt

fresh ground pepper

fresh herbs: rosemary, thyme, and sage (2 Tablespoons chopped)

preheat oven to 450 degrees

combine chopped herbs with 1 Tblsp of kosher salt and 1 tsp of fresh ground pepper. pour 3 Tblsp of canola oil into the mixture.  after patting the chicken dry and stuffing the aromatics inside, smather the herb oil mixture all over the chicken.  put in the oven for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes.

Yum!!

Once again I turned to Fine Cooking and found a recipe for Grilled Chive Oiled Zucchini.  It sounded delightful but I wasn't taking down my food processor and adding more to the mess I needed to clean up. Instead of pureeing the chives and pushing them through a strainer to make the perfect chive oil, I just chopped them up finely, and mixed them with the seasoning and oil.  I think it tasted great, even though none of my kids would eat them.  If I'm ever making a bib batch of zucchini I will make the proper chive oil.

Grilled Zucchini with Chive Oil

3/4 oz. chives, thinly sliced (about 6 Tbs.) 
1/3 cup plus 2 Tbs. walnut oil 
1 lb. small zucchini (3 to 4), cut on a sharp angle into 1/2-inch-thick ovals 
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 

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Put all but 1 Tbs. of the chives in a blender. Begin to blend while slowly pouring 1/3 cup of the walnut oil through the feed hole of the blender lid. Continue to blend for 1 minute. Stop to scrape down the sides of the blender with a rubber spatula. Blend for another minute. Set aside for 30 minutes to 1 hour to let the flavors infuse.

Strain the oil through a fine sieve into a bowl, pressing the pureed chives with a rubber spatula or the back of a spoon to extract any remaining oil.

Prepare a medium-high charcoal or gas grill fire.

In a medium bowl, toss the zucchini with the remaining 2 Tbs. oil, 1/2 tsp. salt, and a few grinds of pepper.

Set the zucchini ovals at an angle on the grill grates and cook until the zucchini has developed rich brown grill marks, about 3 minutes. Turn the zucchini with tongs and cook until the other sides have rich brown grill marks and the zucchini is tender, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a small serving dish or platter.

Drizzle 3 to 4 tsp. of the chive oil over the zucchini and sprinkle with the reserved 1 Tbs. chives.