Thomas Keller, take 2

OK, so the last Thomas Keller recipe we did was a little disappointing.  It was from Ad Hoc at Home, and it was a chicken dish.  So maybe it wasn't such a bright idea to do another chicken dish from the other book of Keller's that we have, Bouchon.

But this one was whole different kettle of fish, if you see what I mean.  It's Roast Chicken with Summer Squash and Tomatoes (p. 195):

This is Keller, though, so nothing is straightforward.  First, you turn to p. 192 for the basic Roast Chicken recipe:

But that recipe tells you to look at p. 325 to make the brine, the day before you are going to eat.  The ingredients are classic Keller brining material: honey (not sugar), salt, thyme, parsley, garlic, etc.

 Combine, boil, then let cool and refrigerate.  Next day, take one chicken:

Plunge into brine for six hours:

Actual photo unavailable

Then take chicken out of brine, rinse, pat dry, season the inside, truss, season the outside, and place in a skillet ready for the oven:

Ah yes.  Before preparing the vegetables to accompany the chicken, you have to make an olivade (turn to p. 14).  This is a delicious concoction of fromage blanc, olives, capers, parsley, red onion, chives, etc.  I did this the day before, and we had even had some with french bread and a glass of wine.  No doubt the wine explains why there are no pictures of the making of it.

Meanwhile, while the chicken is roasting, you need to start preparing the herbs for the vegetables.  For this, it is essential to have one sous-chef, because it really helps with THYME (this is my finest joke ever), and we were short on THYME as you can see from the THYME-piece on the wall.

Basically, we had to cut up various summer squashes and tomatoes to bake in the oven once the chicken was done:

Thyme for a new joke 

Here are the squashes, before and after the addition of herbs, seasoning, and oil.

There was a little 'kitchen strife' over the preparation of the squashes.  One of the chefs supported the idea that the vegetables should have oil drizzled on them first, and then the seasonings, in order that the seasoning stick to the vegetables.  The other chef rigidly demanded that we follow Keller's own instruction, which reads 'Sprinkle the zucchini with salt and pepper and drizzle generously with olive oil'.  After a Gordon Ramsey style altercation, we compromised and did it my way.  Finally, the tomatoes were prepared:

Next, the moment of truth.  The chicken emerges from the oven:

There is no more beautiful sight in all of cooking 

Then the summer vegetables went in.  Meanwhile, Judy had been preparing potatoes, roasting them on the range in a Dutch Oven:

 Things were coming together!  I prepared a jus in the cooking pan:

And already it was time to take the vegetables out, top the tomatoes with olivade, and then put the tomatoes back in the oven to warm through.  Then, the ritual butchering of the chicken:

And... plating:

Before I met jus

After I met jus

Verdict: heavenly.  The chicken was salty and succulent and bathed in thyme soaked jus.  The vegetables were lovely; maybe the tomatoes were the least successful.  They hadn't really baked much in the oven (we think that it's because the oven wasn't hot enough).  But the olivade was good.  One burning question remains.  Was it worth the THYME?