Spring Chicken
Bone-in chicken is roasted low and slow until meltingly tender, then scattered with baby new potatoes, fresh artichokes, and asparagus. Served over a bed of baby arugula and topped with a sauce made of ramps–the king of spring–this is the ultimate way to celebrate the season!
Servings Prep Time
6 – 8 1hour
Cook Time
2 hours, 40 minutes
Servings Prep Time
6 – 8 1hour
Cook Time
2 hours, 40 minutes
Ingredients
For the Dressing:
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 300°
  2. Place the chicken, lemon chunks, garlic, sprigs of thyme, wine, 2 tablespoon of the olive oil, and a generous bit of salt in a roasting tray. Smoosh it all around with your hands so everything is evenly coated, and spread in a single layer with the chicken skin-side up. Cover the tray with foil, place in the oven, and roast for 2 hours.
  3. In the meantime, halve the potatoes, and prepare the asparagus. Snap the woody ends off a few asparagus and use that as a guide on where to remove the ends from the rest. Chop them into 1 – 1 ½” pieces and set aside.
  4. Now, make the dressing: remove the tops from the ramps and puree in a food processor, along with the parsley, until minced. Add in the oils and puree until everything is smooth, before adding in the lemon, vinegar, Dijon, and salt. Blend just to combine, then transfer to a bowl or container and set aside.
  5. Juice the remaining lemon into a bowl of water, large enough to fit all of the cleaned artichokes in (which frankly, just needs to be about a quart capacity). Prepare the artichokes: one at a time, remove all of the leaves until you’re left with the pale upper leaves. Chop the tender top leaves off where they meet the heart, and scoop out the fibrous choke out from the heart and then, using a vegetable peeler, clean the outer edges and stem of the heart. Trim the bottom of the stem so there’s just about an inch left on the heart. As you finish each one, transfer it to the bowl of lemony water to keep them from oxidizing.
  6. Once the chicken’s 2 hours are up, remove it from the oven and unveil. Turn the oven up to 400°.
  7. Remove the chicken to a plate and discard the what’s left in the pan—everything else has done its work now—and wipe the pan out a little before adding the chicken back to the pan.
  8. Dry the artichoke hearts, quarter them, and toss with the potatoes and a bit more oil and salt. Return to the oven for 15 – 20 minutes, until the potatoes are halfway cooked.
  9. Slice the rosy and pale bottoms of the ramps into thin rounds, toss them with the asparagus and a little more oil and salt again. Once the 15 – 20 minutes are up, tumble these over the pan and roast for another 15 – 20 minutes, until the potatoes are perfectly soft and the asparagus are tender-crisp at the very least.
  10. Create a bed of peppery baby arugula on a large platter. Scatter with the remaining parsley leaves and then transfer the chicken and vegetables to the platter. Spoon the dressing over the chicken and serve immediately.
Recipe Notes
  • Personally, I don’t bother cooking the wings—nobody ever eats them. Instead, I throw them into a freezer bag, along with the back bone, and stash in the freezer for making stock out of later.

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