My favorite recipes – Roast Chicken with Grapes

And today a short excursion into the kitchen with one of my favorite roast chicken recipes: “Roast Chicken with Grapes”. Yummy! 😀

My blog members expressed some wishes concerning postings and revisited posting from my “old” blog over the last months. This way I already got together a rather long “posting wish list” for the next months. 🙂

It is great fun to work at postings in which people are really interested and therefore I have tried to work up this list continuously. Already some days ago I started to work up another two open points on my “posting wish list” – a hands-on Klosterstich photo tutorial and a revisited posting about my very first hand sewn stockings / woman’s hose….

But because this postings will take some more time and I will not be able to finish them this week, I decided to surprise you with accomplishing another open point from my long wish list. Yes, I promised several people to start posting about my favorite cooking recipes again. 🙂

And I am happy to say that I recently prepared one of my favorite recipes recently which I can share with you today  – “Roast Chicken with Grapes”. I have to say that it was really awesome! I served the roasted chicken with some butter-pea-basmati rice for dinner and though my sweetheart is not really keen on rice, he even got seconds on both – chicken and rice.

The time of the year to cook this dish is perfect right now – fresh nice big seedless grapes are available in the grocery stores and make this dish a perfect treat after a long working day. And another great bonus of this dish is that it is easy to prepare too.

And now to one of my favorite roast chicken recipes – enjoy! 😀

Roast Chicken with Grapes

This recipe is based on a recipe from the “Food Network Magazine” issue Dec. 2012.

 You need for this recipe:

• Chicken
  1 big package with about 12 pieces of your favorite chicken parts like thighs,… or one whole chicken divided into smaller parts
• 1 red or yellow middle size onion – cut into wedges
• 2 teaspoons “Herbes de Provence” or “Italian Seasoning”
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper (preferably fresh grinded pepper)
• 2 cups red or green seedless grapes – cut in half
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1) Put the grill into the upper third of your oven and preheat your oven to about 450°F (230°C).

2) Take a nice big nonstick casserole and oil it with some vegetable oil. Wash the chicken parts and dry them by using some kitchen paper towel. Place the chicken parts and the onion wedges into the casserole.

3) Put the olive oil, the “Herbes de Provence” or “Italian Seasoning” herbs, the salt and pepper evenly over the chicken and the onion wedges. Rub the olive oil with the herbs, salt and pepper into the chicken skin with your hands.

4) Take the casserole and place it in the top third of your preheated oven. Now bake the chicken for at least 15-20 min until the chicken starts to show some nice browning.
During this 15-20 min you can prepare your grapes – wash and cut your grapes in half.

5) As soon as the chicken shows some browning, take the casserole out of the oven. There should be already some nice chicken-onion sauce in the casserole – take a big spoon and pour some of this chicken-onion liquid over the chicken parts.

6) Now you can add the grapes to the chicken and onion and put the casserole back into the oven for at least another 15-20 min. If you have nice big chicken thighs – like I used them – you can add another 10 min to assure that the chicken is well-done. The chicken is ready as soon as the chicken skin shows a nice dark browning.

As soon as the chicken skin is crispy enough for your taste, serve it… I love to serve the “Roast Chicken with Grapes” with rice and some fresh salad. 😀

Though I normally prefer to cook Austrian recipes, this is actually an “American” recipe.
On my last flight from the states to Austria in 2012 I was quite bored and got me a “Food Network Magazine” at the Washington airport. During my flight from Washington to Vienna I discovered the “Roast Chicken with Grapes” recipe in this magazine.

It sounded so yummy that I tried this recipe as soon as I was back in Austria. And I liked it so much that I immediately decided to add this recipe to my collection of favorite recipes in my very own hand written recipe book. I know, having a hand written recipe book is rather old-fashioned but well, I am a “vintage” fan and in some cases a rather old fashioned girl. 🙂

…and well, I admit it, I am definitely a food-nerd. 😉

I hope you like this recipe and the final, very yummy result as much as I do. Maybe a nice idea for your dinner this weekend? 😀