Spiced yogurt marinade brightens roast chicken with vegetables

In this recipe, a whole chicken is marinated in yogurt and spices overnight, placed upon a pan filled with root vegetables, then roasted. The nice thing about this recipe is that the preparation is done a day ahead. The overnight marinade results in a deeply flavored roast chicken, along with the vegetables that have been cooked in the delicious drippings from the chicken.

Preparing the chicken and marinade the day before takes only a few minutes. The following day, the roasting time is only about an hour, depending upon the weight of the chicken. Although I used a whole chicken in this recipe because I was feeding four people with healthy appetites, chicken thighs also work great.

Ingredients

1 pint of unflavored whole yogurt

1 tablespoon curry powder

1 tablespoon paprika

1 teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger

1 tablespoon grated fresh garlic

1 4 to 5-pound whole spatchcocked chicken, giblets removed; or 5 or 6 whole chicken thighs

Preparation

• Mix marinade ingredients thoroughly in a small bowl.

• If using a whole chicken, spatchcock it by using a sharp knife or kitchen shears to cut out the back, which can be saved for another use, like to make chicken stock.

• Press the down on the breasts to flatten the chicken. Place breast-side down in a dish large enough to hold the chicken flat. Add salt. Cover generously with half the marinade, then turn it breast-side up and spread the remainder all over the chicken. Cover with plastic wrap. Marinate overnight in the refrigerator.

• Select the vegetables you wish to bake with the chicken. You could use small potatoes, Brussels sprouts, or any root vegetables of your choice. Peel and cut them into small sections.

These are the vegetables I used:

2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks (about 1 to 1 ½ inches wide)

3 carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch sections

5 cloves of garlic, peeled

1 large onion, peeled and cut into quarters

3 leeks, white part only, rinsed and cut into 3-inch sections

The next day, preheat your oven to 425. Place cut-up vegetables into a large bowl, sprinkle with salt and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Spread evenly in a large roasting pan and place the marinated chicken on top, breast-side up. Add any extra marinade.

Roast chicken for approximately one hour. Test the temperature of the breast and thigh. The thigh should be 165 to 175 degrees.

Test vegetables for doneness. The breast meat should be at least 160 degrees. If the chicken seems to brown too quickly, lay a piece of aluminum foil on top.

To serve, place the roasting pan on the table and cut chicken from there, or carve the chicken separately and serve it alongside the vegetables.

I served this with fresh-baked focaccia bread and a mixed green salad. It feeds four people generously.

Patty Schied is a longtime Juneau resident who studied at the Cordon Bleu in London and has written a cookbook. Her Cooking For Pleasure column appears every other week in the Juneau Independent’s features, at juneauindependent.com. She welcomes questions about her recipes at patschied@yahoo.com.