Skillet-Roasted Chicken Breasts with Harissa-Mint Carrots

 17 February 2021

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, January 2019

Generally we prefer dark chicken meat, thighs in particular, to white meat in part because it is harder to overcook and remains juicy even if you do go over a little. Nonetheless, this simple looking method for cooking bone-in chicken breasts has sufficient appeal to try it. Not only did it promise to be quick enough for a weeknight dinner but it included a new side dish as well.

I used the "for Two" version of the recipe that is available online. This is really two recipes, one for the chicken and one for the carrots, the only overlap is the use of the chicken drippings for cooking the carrots. The recipe specified two bone-in split chicken breasts, 10-12 ounces each. The two I bought weighed a combined 28 ounces and one was significantly larger than the other. They were well-trimmed so little additional prep was needed. The skin was peeled back so the meat could be salted. After replacing the skin it was pierced to let rendered fat escape and sprayed with vegetable oil. The chicken was placed skin-side down in a cold skillet then cooked over medium-high heat (I used a setting of 7 on our range) for about 7 minutes. The skin was by then well browned, perhaps a little overcooked. The skin-side up chicken and skillet were placed in a 325° oven until the chicken reached 160°.

While the chicken cooked I did mise en place for the carrot dish. After the chicken was done it was transferred to a plate and the skillet, with the chicken juices and fond, was placed on a medium-high burner. To this was added thinly-sliced shallot, mild harissa (a North African chile pepper condiment), and salt. This was cooked until most of the liquid was gone. Sliced carrots were added and then cooked, covered, over medium heat until the carrots were tender. The cover was removed and cooking continued until the liquid was reduced to a glaze. Lemon juice and chopped fresh mint were added. Total time was 80 minutes, including the 10 minutes extra that it took to cook the larger breast.

These are two good dishes worth making again. The recipes doesn't include a lot of ingredients and both the chicken and carrots were pretty easy to make. The aroma of fresh mint on the hot carrots was wonderful. The chicken skin was nice and crispy and the chicken was juicy, even the smaller piece which was a little overdone.  As usual, the "for two" recipe fed the two of us two dinners. There is also a version of this recipe with garlic green beans that could be worth trying when green beans are in season.