Buttermilk Marinated Roast Chicken with Fennel and Potatoes | Samin Nosrat

Want to make a really good roast chicken? Check out Samin Nosrat’s technique and science driven cookbook Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: the four elements of good cooking. It is an excellent book for those who want a reliable teacher and a great storyteller all in one. Do you remember the teachers and college professors you actually liked? The ones who made learning interesting? Ms. Nosrat is one of them. Through stories of her forays into the culinary world and being a restaurant chef, she explains how she gained her knowledge and understanding of the basic principles of good cooking.

There are a lot of technique and how to cookbooks out there. I didn’t think much upon first hearing of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. Another book on how to make the perfect boiled egg and sear a cut of meat? Well, after hearing some buzz on this book, I decided to pick it up at the library (an excellent resource for test driving cookbooks, by the way).

A down-to-earth expert and lover of food.

I was floored to find Samin’s voice so easy to decipher and interesting to hear. It was easy to feel the depth of her love for food. She’s not preachy or a food snob in any way. Her mantra breaks down cooking to four major responses to salt, fat, acid and heat. The first half of the book explains these four elements and how food works in conjunction to them. Full of great lessons, tips and explanations. The second half contains the recipes that go along with the lessons, along with menus that correspond to reinforce these elements. It’s a very well thought out, researched and highly enjoyable read. This is definitely a book I want to read cover to cover, relaxing with a hot cup of tea.

Samin has a Netflix show of the same name and I’m happy to say she really shines through on the screen as well. She’s definitely a geeky-cool kind of chick and you can tell she doesn’t care one iota how she looks when she’s in raptures over something on her plate. I thoroughly enjoyed watching her eyebrows raise every time she ate something delicious and was very excited to try some recipes.

But buttermilk is for fried chicken!

That was my first thought when I read the ingredients list for her buttermilk marinated roast chicken. After some thought, it does make a lot of sense. Buttermilk tenderizes chicken since the acid in it works to break down tough fibers. By adding salt to the buttermilk, you’re essentially creating a brine, which adds flavor, as she states. So why haven’t I been doing this all along?! I’m not sure.

Her recipe contains just chicken, buttermilk and salt. When I do a buttermilk marinade for fried chicken, I always like to add some thyme sprigs, peppercorns and cayenne. I left the spice out this time just because I wanted to see how the chicken tasted without any strong flavors. I also decided to spatchcock my chicken to shave a little cooking time and make it easier to carve and serve the chicken. Just cut it up at the joints, easy peasy.

The roast chicken results?

I’ll have to admit, it was a very delicious bird! Moist, tender and deeply flavored. The salty savoriness was in every bite. What impressed me the most were with leftovers. Usually, taking a bite of cold chicken straight out of the fridge doesn’t impress me much. This chicken retained it’s tender texture and great flavor, even with the white meat.

Her recipe did not include any vegetables. I just wanted to make a complete meal in one pan and I happen to love roasting fennel. For next time, I would roast the vegetables on one tray and the chicken in a cast iron skillet to promote more browning. I wanted chicken juices to sizzle over the vegetables by sitting underneath the bird. My fennel did not caramelize as much as I like though. I would also re-salt the top of the chicken lightly before going into the oven just because I like salty, crispy chicken skin. Yes, more salt! That is the first word in the title of the book, right?

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