Thanksgiving’s just passed, which means that, in the words of the late and great Andy Williams, it’s now the most wonderful time of the year!  The holidays call for feasts and piles of tasty food upon even more piles of tasty food.  This Thanksgiving, my family and I attended a family potluck to which my contribution was the food whose recipes I’ve chosen to share with you all.  

So what did I make this time around?  Well, my main dish was roast chicken. See, my family always has a hard time cooking turkey, with each one of our attempts to do so ending up in vain. For this reason, chicken was the obvious and go-to second option—it’s much cheaper too!  To impress my family by adding a bit of Filipino flair to the food—both my parents were born in the Philippines—I also whipped up an adobo-inspired glaze that you can either brush on the chicken or use as a dipping sauce.  Instead of gravy, I figured the glaze would be an interesting alternative that’s bound to either match or even beat the heartiness and taste of your run-of-the-mill gravy.  Intent on impressing my family even more, I had to pair my roast chicken with probably the most classic Thanksgiving side dish of all: mashed potatoes.  The only twist?  Cheese.  Enough cheese to make any cardiologist whimper in fear. The recipe is basically my take on pommes aligot, a dish whose origins lie in the hilly L’Aubrac region of south-central France.  Regarding my method of cooking the chicken, I can’t forget to mention Adam Ragusea.  It was thanks to his excellent video on making roast chicken that I was spared from having to do a lot of extra butchery.  Unlike most roast chicken recipes, which have you butterflying the entire chicken so it becomes spatchcocked, Adam’s recipe does away with it completely, save for a few cuts on the drumsticks and thighs.  With that, here’s my set of holiday recipes.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Roast chicken

• young chicken weighing anywhere from 3 to 5 lbs
• 1 tbsp of vegetable oil
• 3 tbsp of kosher salt
• 2 tbsp of ground black pepper
• 2 tbsp of lemon pepper
• 2 tbsp of garlic powder
• 1 tbsp of smoked paprika
• 1 lemon
• 2 sprigs of rosemary
• ½ of a red onion (or 1 shallot)
• 2 peeled cloves of garlic

Cheesy mashed potatoes

• 4 lbs of Yukon gold potatoes
• 2 cups of heavy cream
• 3 tbsp of kosher salt
• ½ cup of whole milk
• 8 oz of unsalted butter (equivalent to 2 sticks of butter), cut up into small cubes
• 12 oz of whole milk low-moisture mozzarella cheese, grated
• 12 oz of Gruyère cheese (or extra-sharp aged white cheddar), grated
• 1 sprig of rosemary
• 4 cloves of garlic

Adobo glaze:

• Filipino soy sauce (Silver Swan brand ideally, Lauriat variety in particular)
• Cane vinegar (Datu Puti brand ideally)
• 2 tbsp of light brown sugar
• 1 tbsp of whole black peppercorns
• 2 calamansi (or 1 lemon), juiced
• 6 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 dried bay leaf

Directions for the roast chicken

1. Dry chicken with paper towels
2. Using a knife, carefully cut out the wishbone, which is located around the opening where the neck of the chicken to be connected
3. Make three cuts to the chicken’s drumsticks and thighs down to the bone, this is what’s known as scoring
4. Coat chicken with vegetable oil such that there is a thin layer covering all the skin, including areas which are almost pinched together, like chicken’s armpits
5. Season the chicken with kosher salt, black pepper, lemon pepper, paprika, and garlic powder until an almost homogenous paste forms; ensure that both the interior and exterior of the chicken are coated with an even layer of seasoning
6. Stuff the interior cavity with lemon slices, garlic, rosemary, and red onion
7. Put chicken on a sheet tray with a wire rack underneath, so that it can rest in the fridge uncovered for at least an hour and up to overnight
8. Take the chicken out of the fridge and leave it at room temperature for 30 minutes; this helps to make it cook more evenly
9. To a cold pan, ideally cast-iron or stainless steel, add vegetable oil and place chicken inside with the thigh side down and the wing tips pointing up
10. Heat pan on medium high heat and let chicken cook until it smells like it’s about to burn, after approximately 10 minutes
11. Remove chicken from pan and transfer to a roasting pan with a rack inside to allow hot air to circulate around
12. Place chicken on the middle rack of an oven that’s been heated up to 425℉, with convection on if possible
13. Roast the chicken until the deepest part of the breast registers 155℉, at which point the chicken should be taken out and left to rest for at least 30 minutes

• this allows the chicken to cook another 10 degrees so that by the time it’s served, the chicken is at a perfect 165℉, the temperature at which all bad pathogens die

Directions for the cheesy mashed potatoes (pommes aligot):

1. Peel washed Yukon gold potatoes
2. Cut potatoes into small chunks, roughly with 1 to 2 inch sides
3. Transfer potato chunks to a pot that’s at least 5 quarts in volume
4. Add water to the pot until the potatoes are submerged, with an inch between the chunks and the surface of the water as a visual rule of thumb
5. Heat the pot on medium-high, and use a lid to cover the pot most of the way, allowing the steam to escape
6. When the water starts to boil, add 2 tbsp of kosher salt
7. Boil the potatoes for 15 minutes, or until you can pierce one of the chunks with no resistance whatsoever
8. As the potatoes are boiling, get a small saucepan and put heavy cream, milk, crushed garlic, and rosemary in it
9. Bring this to a bare simmer, and turn the heat off as soon as it starts burbling
10. Let the garlic and rosemary steep in the cream and remove after 5 minutes
11. Drain the pot, leaving the potatoes in there so that they can steam for 10 minutes
12. As soon as they’re done steaming, use either a ricer or a potato masher in addition to a fine mesh sieve to mash the potatoes
13. Add the cubed butter in small batches to the now mashed potatoes, mixing vigorously with a spatula after each batch has been added in
14. After all the butter has been mixed in, add the flavored cream in batches just like the butter before it
15. Once both the butter and the cream have been mixed in, start adding small handfuls of cheese and mix in slowly until each handful of cheese is fully melted, repeat until all the cheese has been used up
16. Add the last ¼ cup of milk to the potatoes as well as the last tablespoon of salt, mixing well one last time so everything comes together

Directions for the adobo glaze:

1. In a small saucepan, combine soy sauce, vinegar, half the calamansi juice, and half the brown sugar (1 tbsp) and bring this mixture to a boil
2. Once the mixture starts to boil, take the saucepan off the heat and add in the garlic cloves, bay leaf, and black peppercorns
3. Allow the aromatics, herbs, and spices to steep in the mixture for 10 minutes
4. Take all the solids out and bring the mixture to a boil once more, this time adding the rest of the brown sugar
5. Reduce the mixture until it’s reached a slightly syrupy consistency, to where it’s glossy and can coat the back of a spoon without dripping off super fast like water
6. Turn the heat off and let cool for 5 minutes
7. Add the remaining calamansi juice and stir vigorously