3 tablespoons butter
4 shallots, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound assorted mushrooms, sliced
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped
3 ounces sherry or brandy
3/4 cup roasted chestnuts, halved
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
salt and pepper

1. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the shallots and sauté until tender, then add the garlic.
2. Stir in the mushrooms and sauté until tender and brown, then add the thyme and sherry.
3. Simmer until most of the sherry has evaporated, then add the chestnuts and heavy cream, stirring to coat.
4. Season liberally with salt and pepper and serve garnished with chopped parsley.

Makes 4 servings

1 whole roasting chicken
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 granny smith apple, quartered
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon garlic
1/2 cup apple juice
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1-1/2 tablespoons ginger puree
salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Stuff chicken with apple quarters, rub skin with vegetable oil and season liberally with salt and pepper.
3. Place in a roasting pan and put in the oven, roasting until skin is crisp, about 20-25 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, combine syrup, garlic, apple juice, brown sugar, mustard, vinegar and ginger in a bowl.
5. Brush chicken with the prepared sauce and reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Roast, basting with the same every 15 minutes, until chicken is tender and cooked through to the center, about 1-1/2 hours.
6. Allow chicken to rest before carving, then serve in quarters.

Makes 4 servings

I tried to make Apple Glazed Chicken, but everything about this dish was wrong. Allow me to explain. I moved here recently, abandoning all of my kitchen utensils and appliances (I miss you, kitchen!) I have not yet invested in a roasting pan. I got paid today and decided to go out and buy some decent cookware, starting with a roasting pan. The smallest one I could find to my liking could've fit a 30 pound turkey with all the trimmings. This would be great if I were American, since Thanksgiving is right around the corner, but I'm not. So, I ended up buying two for a dollar foil pans for my roasting work. Later on I found the perfect roasting pan, only it happened to be 350 dollars, so I guess that's going to have to wait until I get some sort of professional roaster certificate that awards me free roasting pans.

The second major obstacle is that I had originally intended to roast a leg of pork that I saw at the butcher yesterday when I was picking up the pork chops. The leg of pork was actually a leg of lamb (I've never seen one so.. pink.. before) but I bought it anyway because it was cheap. Of course, my idea for roasting the pork would not work so well with the lamb, so I also had to buy a little roaster chicken, because I figured that'd work. I'm not sure why I just didn't get another cut of pork.

Anyhow, my method was basically fool proof. I was going to crisp the skin of the chicken rubbed with a bit of oil, salt and pepper and then roast it at a very low temperature with a bit of apple juice to keep it moist. Then rub it with a glaze of maple syrup, more unfiltered apple juice and some spices, raise the temperature to make a nice crispy seal and then have a nice blend of sweet, crispy skin combined with tender, fall of the bone flesh. Again, this probably would've worked better with a braised pork shank. Instead, I just poured most of the marinade over and let it cook in the juices.

The problem is that I took low and slow to the extreme, completely forgetting about the chicken (after already spending several hours in the oven) and going to sleep for 8 hours. When I awoke, I remembered almost instantly and went to check out the results. The marinade had completely blackened and was half separated with chicken fat. The meat, contrary to the incredibly dried out texture I was expecting, was "too tender", basically rendered to off-flavored mush. All of the fat had completely rendered from the bird and it was left quite a mess.

Since I'd already ruined the chicken, I didn't bother going gung-ho with the sides. I made Mushrooms with Chestnuts and that was it. I'd never had chestnuts before. They're quite tedious to prepare (roasting, peeling etc.) if you didn't buy them that way and they really don't taste like much more than an undercooked potato. Aside from that, wine, garlic and thyme are always a great compliment to mushrooms so the dish worked, but I can't imagine bothering with the chestnuts again. I used crimini, oyster and shittake mushrooms.