Farm To Kitchen Table Whole Roasted Poussin Dinner Recipe Bleecker June 8, 2015 Dinner, Featured, Recipes This is one of my favorite times of year at the farmers market. Not only are all of my favorite foods available but once again families and puppies are all doing their shopping too. I was patiently waiting for poussin, or spring chickens, to arrive at the market and I was able to snag one from Yellow Bell Farms. You can find Yellow Bell Farms at the Union Square Greenmarket every Wednesday or on weekends at various farmers markets in NYC and Westchester. Check their site for more details. Roasting a whole chicken used to be one of those recipes that really intimidated me but over the past year I’ve made this recipe in various ways and it couldn’t be simpler! Especially if roasting a chicken is intimidating for you, a poussin is much easier because of it’s small size. It is very hard to under cook it. I use a cast iron skillet to roast my poussin in but feel free to use any heavy bottomed roasting pan Spring is also the perfect time to eat one of my favorite versatile veggies, Asparagus! So head to your farmers market and pick up these ingredients and you’ll have a farm fresh dinner in less than 45 minutes. Whole Roasted Lemon Garlic Poussin and Asparagus 1 Poussin weighing about 2 pounds 1 head of garlic separated into cloves 1 lemon slices into wedges Optional: Trader Joes 21 Seasoning Salute or your favorite spice blend 1 bunch Asparagus Olive Oil Salt Pepper Directions for Roasted Poussin Preheat oven to 425 degrees and have the rack in the middle of the oven. My poussin came with the neck still attached, if yours does too just use a sharp butcher or chef’s knife to remove it. You can save it to use for stock or discard. Pat the entire chicken, and inside of it, with a paper towel to remove excess moisture. Smash each garlic clove to break the papery skin it is in but leaving it still inside. Add a little oil to the bottom of your pan. Place lemon wedges and garlic cloves spread out on the bottom of the pan so that the chicken will sit on top of the lemon and garlic rather than the pan. Reserve 3 garlic cloves and lemon wedges. Rub the entire chicken with olive oil. Season the top and underside with salt, pepper and 21 seasoning salute. Put the chicken on top of the lemon and garlic. Put into the oven and roast for about 30 minutes or until the juices of it run clear. At this point I then turned my broiler on high for about 2 minutes just to really crisp the skin up. Allow the poussin to rest for about 10 minutes. While it rests prepare the asparagus. Hold your asparagus at each end and bend them towards each other until it snaps. Where it naturally snaps is how much of the end you should cut off. It might seem like a lot of the asparagus, but believe me even if you cooked those ends you wouldn’t want to eat them. In a skillet over medium heat add olive oil and asparagus. Sautee for about 10 minutes and season generously with salt and pepper. Carve the poussin just as you would a larger bird and serve!
