Roast Chicken with Figs, and Rosemary Potatoes

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Roast Chicken wiht Figs by Spinach Tiger

I am embracing figs in the way figs should be embraced. As part of the mother of all comfort food, the roast chicken.

What do figs do for roast chicken? Everything. Figs usher in the Fall, which for us Americans means foods that echo us back to childhood, but for us foodies, we take it up a little notch. My mother didn’t roast her chicken with figs, because in that generation, it was carrots and onions, possibly potatoes.

In the generation before that, chickens were stuffed with rice and oranges one week and bread stuffing another. There are a thousand ways to make a roast chicken, and my goal in culinary life is to find them all.

Roast chicken with figs will be the dish of our Autumn. I will probably make it four or five times, changing things along the way. I will add in more shallots, because they became a bit candied in the roasting process and more divine than I anticipated. I might even add in more figs, because a bite of chicken together with a bite of fig is a new experience that I want to have again.

Figs are sweet in a not too sweet way, and when they roast down, they caramelize, adding a new texture and flavor which pairs well with chicken, white or dark. They are good eaten with a bite of roast potato that has been roasted with a mustard, garlic, olive oil, rosemary preparation. It’s amazing together.

I might suggest a salad with a tangy vinaigrette made with honey, champagne vinegar, mustard and olive oil, to help cut through the richness of the dish.

This is what I’m talking about when I say modern comfort food. It’s full of soulful flavor and texture, and it’s healthy, nutritious and looks a bit sexy too.

Roast Chicken wiht Figs by angela roberts

Roast Chicken and Dating

Marcella Hazan says in her book, Essentials of Classical Italian Cooking, that this lemon chicken recipe is something so special that men propose upon eating it. I agree that it’s a special dish, but I’m willing to bet that Roast Chicken with Figs is as equally seductive.

After a few months of courtship, show the man you can cook. Nothing is sexier than a roast chicken and a homemade apple pie. Sure, honey, he loves you for your brains, and your looks, but if you want to seal the deal by Christmas, start cooking, but don’t let it look like diet food. Just make big fat healthy food like this roasted chicken.

This is perfect because you stay in your calorie range and he fills up. Top it off with a vanilla ice cream over some kind of pie and this man won’t know what hit him. In today’s world men can easily find the sweet stuff, if you know what I’m talking about, but a girl who can cook better than mama is quite intoxicating.

So tell me, what’s your favorite Autumn supper and do you think it’s true that the way to man’s heart is through his stomach?

More Roast Chicken Recipes

Print Recipe
4 from 2 votes

Roast Chicken with Figs, Shallots and Mustard Rosemary Potatoes

Figs usher in the Fall with Roast Chicken, Shallots, Mustard Rosemary Roasted Potatoes
Prep Time1 hour
Cook Time1 hour
Total Time2 hours
Servings: 6
Author: Angela Roberts

Ingredients

  • 3 pound Whole Chicken
  • sea salt
  • 1 pint of figs most sliced in half, some left whole (see note).
  • 6 shallots thinly sliced
  • 4 Yukon gold potatoes quartered with skins
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 1 large clove garlic
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 3 sprigs fresh thyme
  • 2 sprigs rosemary
  • 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary finely chopped

Instructions

  • Rinse chicken, pat dry, salt and refrigerate for 1-3 days, wrapped in plastic
  • On roasting day, remove from refrigerator, rinse, pat dry and resalt. Leave out at room temperature for 1 hour. If you can't do this, your cooking time will increase.
  • Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
  • Put chicken in oven for 25 minutes.
  • In the meantime, prepare potatoes.
  • In large bowl crush garlic with mustard, thyme, 1 tablespoon chopped rosemary, olive oil. Add quartered potatoes and mix well.
  • During last 25 minutes of roasting chicken, add in shallots and potatoes and figs around the chicken. (If you don't use potatoes, add figs in whole form 25 minutes into baking.
  • Use a meat thermometer to test chicken at 50 minutes. The chicken is done when the deepest part at the thigh not touching the bones reaches 165 degrees.
  • You may need to cook for 10-15 more.
  • Let the chicken rest for at least ten minutes before you cut it.

Notes

Figs: You can slice all in half, or mix it up. If chicken is larger than 3 pounds use up to two pints of figs.

Please follow me on instagram. If you make this recipe,  please tag me #spinachtiger.

If you love this recipe, please give it five stars. It means a lot. xoxo

 


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29 Comments

  1. Don’t know if you’ve tried this one…
    Slice a few fat, juicy cloves of garlic as thinly as you can. Loosen the skin of your roasting bird, and slip the sliced garlic under the skin in a single layer (try not to pierce the meat). Generously season the chicken (on the skin, not under), with freshly ground black pepper. Use your favorite roasting pan, but leave bird uncovered (oven preheated to 375, bird at room temp). As the skin crisps, baste with freshly-squeezed lemon juice to taste: I usually juice-up at least 2 lemons to have on hand as the skin crisps. If you use salt with the seasoning pepper, use high-quality organic sea-salt, but please be sparing because (as with wine) the lemon brings out the salt flavor. Judge your cooking time by your own experience, of course… Results? Homestyle, gourmet-quality, Roasted Garlic Lemon-Pepper Chicken!!! Yummy… (of course, plenty of chilled bone-dry Vin Blanc to accompany, with whatever side dishes you fancy…) Enjoy!

  2. I am a chicken kind of girl and I am going to my friends this weekend who has a wonderful fig tree…will let you know when I make it.

  3. I definitely have to try this. I love the fig idea with chicken. ON our first date I served my husband organic roast chicken but I bought it from Dallmeyr in Munich. Turned out he doesn’t like to eat anything with bones but he spoke about marriage that evening anyway. Yes. ON the first date. Was it the chicken or me? Now I wonder….

  4. I definitely have to try this. I love the fig idea with chicken. ON our first date I served my husband organic roast chicken but I bought it from Dallmeyr in Munich. Turned out he doesn’t like to eat anything with bones but he spoke about marriage that evening anyway. Yes. ON the first date. Was it the chicken or me?

  5. Love that chicken and the platter is gorgeous! Hehe I particularly like this line too: “There are a thousand ways to make a roast chicken, and my goal in culinary life is to find them all.” 😛 You’re a gal after our hearts Angela!

  6. This looks wonderful – I’ve never tried roast chicken with figs, but I bet the flavor combination is just wonderful. Oh, and I couldn’t agree more than one of the ways to a man’s heart is definitely through his stomach!

  7. This looks so delicious, I definitely want to try making it, I’ll let you know how it turns out!

    Happy to be a co-host and happy #figlove month!

  8. Angela,
    I love the pairing of the figs with the roast chicken. I would have never thought to put them together, until now. Gorgeous presentation. Sending lots of #figlove your way!

  9. ahahah getting marriage proposals, but I can totally see that. The roast chicken looks phenomenal and added that gourmet touch with figs, shallots and the mustard. I can see this chicken at the holiday table!

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