Henry Fielding's Roast Chicken

Every person should have a meal like this.



There’s not a food group left untouched after this is over.

Granted, Tom Jones and Mrs. Waters are characters from The History of Tom Jones: A Foundling by Henry Fielding.

It does make you wonder about Fielding.

Logically, he must have enjoyed his food.

And his dinner companions..

Seems to me Fielding put his life experience whole heartedly into his work.

And then the movies came along and put it on the screen.

I don’t know about you, but I have never quite looked at roast chicken in the same way since.

Henry Fielding's Roast Chicken
Adapted from Jacques Pepin’s Table

1 3-4 pound chicken
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
A couple of good swirls extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 425.

Sprinkle the chicken inside and out with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Drizzle with a bit of extra virgin olive oil.

Heat a couple of good swirls of olive oil in large cast iron or oven proof skillet until hot and the olive oil looks wavy. Place chicken on one side in the skillet and brown over medium to high heat for 3 minutes or so. Turn it over and brown on the other side for 3 minutes.

Put the skillet in the oven. Roast chicken uncovered for 20 minutes. Turn on other side and roast for another 20 minutes. Then turn chicken on its back and baste with juices from cooking and roast it breast side up for 10 minutes.

Remove from oven and place it breast side down on a platter. Pour drippings from skillet into a bowl and set aside to allow fat to rise to the top. Do not rinse the skillet. IF you are making the fabulous pasta side dish, read and follow those directions.

If no pasta for you, just the chicken, deglaze the skillet by adding a couple of tablespoons dry white wine, or red wine or water, whatever you have handy, and stir to melt the juices over high heat. Add to drippings in bowl and skim off and discard as much fat as you can. Serve with the chicken.

Serves 4 generously.

Pasta with Manchego
Adapted from Jacques Pepin's Table


10 ounces medium sized pasta (I used penne but shells are best)
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 cup freshly grated Manchego cheese

Cook pasta and drain, reserving ½ cup pasta cooking water. Put the skillet the chicken was cooked in over medium high heat. Add the pasta water and bring to a boil, stirring to get the juices in the skillet and put this liquid in a bowl large enough to hold the pasta. Skim off about 3 tbsp fat that has risen to the top of the bowl with the original drippings. Add the fat to the bowl with the deglazing liquid. Add remaining ingredients and toss well.

Serves 4 generously.

Henry Fielding's Roast Chicken

Wine Merchant Steak

When I was growing up, my favorite night of the weekend was the one when my parents would go out. Usually a Friday or a Saturday night. That meant my best friend, Anne, would come over to spend the night and we would cook dinner for ourselves. It was a major production. We set the table, we lit candles, we put music on the stereo or if it was Friday night, we would time it to watch Time Tunnel with James Darren. We were fork in hand when that came on!

One of the first things I learned to cook by myself was a minute steak. I thought I was the stuff cooking that poor piece of meat to death in a frying pan. I’d do it right too. Butter in the pan, lots of garlic salt on the meat..cooked to perfection once I learned that the minute in minute steak should be taken literally. My favorite topping for a minute steak was sautéed mushrooms. Again the butter and mushrooms cooking down and then splashing in a bit of Worcestershire sauce that usually instantaneously disappeared considering the fact that at that point in my life, high was the heat of choice, leaving a wonderful caramely flavor.

Needless to say, I outgrew minute steaks fairly quickly. Discovering tenderloin will do that to you. Yes, it’s expensive and no, you can’t eat it every night. But tenderloin brings on the same anticipation that the minute steak brought to me when I was ten. The table is set, the candles are lit, there’s wine to open and the weekend begins.

Wine Merchant Steak..adapted from Jacques Pepin’s Table

2 -7 ounce tenderloin filets
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 shallots, peeled and chopped
4 ounces baby Bella or Crimini mushrooms, sliced
2-3 large cloves garlic, peeled, smashed and finely chopped
1 cup Beaujolais
1 cup low sodium chicken stock
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
A little bitty dab of horseradish sauce
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
A bit of cornstarch
Finely chopped chives

Season the steaks with salt and pepper. Heat oil in cast iron pan and when hot, add the steaks and sauté for 2-3 minutes per side for medium rare.
Remove steaks to plate and set aside in warm place. To drippings in skillet add shallots, and sauté for about 10 seconds, add mushrooms and garlic and sauté for about a minutes. Stir in wine and boil down until only about 2 tbsp remain. Add stock and reduce the mixture to about ¾ cup. Add Worcestershire and Dijon mustard and mix well. Take a little bit of the hot sauce and mix with maybe ½ tsp cornstarch and dissolve then add back to pan and whisk till smooth.

Bring to boil. Season to taste.
Plate the steaks and drizzle sauce over.
Put face in plate and enjoy.
Serves 2.

Wine Merchant Steak