Recipe: The Pan Juices in Alison Roman’s Crushed-Olive Chicken Are “Good Enough To Drink”

Alison Roman has one request for this simple yet complexly flavoured “roasting tray dinner” packed with garlic and briny olives, as “the success of the recipe depends on it”.

“I want you to ask yourself before removing the chicken: ‘Could this chicken be browner?’ If you hedge even a little, the answer might be yes,” she writes in her latest cookbook Something From Nothing. “Keep roasting”.

The bounty of savoury schmaltz lining the pan from your deeply browed bird is then deglazed with a glug of oil and water, some parsley, and the aforementioned garlic and olives. The result? “A true pan sauce, done in a roasting tray, all tangy and stained with turmeric, good enough to drink.”

Alison Roman’s crushed-olive chicken with turmeric

Serves: 4
Preparation time:
Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

1.6–1.8kg bone-in, skin-on chicken parts
1 tsp ground turmeric
6 tbsp olive oil, divided
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
120ml (½ cup) white wine vinegar or 90ml (⅓ cup) white distilled vinegar
360ml (1½ cups) Castelvetrano or other mild, green olives, crushed and pitted
2 garlic cloves, finely grated
1 handful of parsley, tender leaves and stems, chopped

Method

Preheat the oven to 230°C.

Place the chicken on a roasting tray, toss with the turmeric and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Make sure the chicken is in one layer, skin-side up, then pour the vinegar over and around the chicken and place the tray in the oven.

Bake the chicken, without flipping, until it’s cooked through and deeply browned all over, 25–30 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine the olives, garlic, parsley, the remaining 4 tablespoons olive oil and 2 tablespoons water in a small bowl; season with salt and pepper.

Once the chicken is cooked, remove the roasting tray from the oven and transfer the chicken to a large serving platter, leaving behind any of the juices and bits stuck to the tray.

Make sure the tray is on a sturdy surface (the stovetop, a counter), then pour the olive mixture into it. Using a spatula or wooden spoon, gently scrape up all the bits left behind, letting the olive mixture mingle with the rendered fat and get increasingly saucy. Pour the olive mixture over the chicken, then serve.

This is an edited extract from Something from Nothing by Alison Roman, published by Quadrille. Available in stores nationally. Photography by Chris Bernabeo.