I first heard John Mayer in during one of my summers in Japan that I taught English at a summer camp. I graduated from high school while living in Japan and to make money during the summers, American kids living overseas had two primary options. We could either work at the American Embassy and wear business casual or work as a camp counselor teaching English to elementary age Japanese kids and wear whatever we wanted. I chose the latter. The summer I heard John Mayer, one of the camp weeks was a sleep away camp that had a natural hot spring on the side of the mountain. After all the kids were asleep, we all left to go sit in this hot spring and stare at the stars. Actually I don’t remember working at all that week, only this hot spring and typical emotional drama of a high school teenage girl. Oh and John Mayer’s “Comfortable.” This was my anthem for that summer as I was stuck on two guys and my heart was on hamster wheel of emotion. Despite this, the summer was filled with memories and music. Granted, Continuum does not have “Comfortable” on it. One of the pitfalls of albums for a blog that pairs food with vinyl, if a vinyl was never made, the album will never appear on Licorice Pizza Pie. There are many, many albums from the late 90’s early 2000’s that fall into this category. (Usher, Deborah Cox and Matchbox 20, if you are listening, can we fix this?)
Okay, here is why Continuum pairs so well with this chicken dinner and mustard greens. Roasting a whole chicken, pairing a healthy side and drinking delicious wine with it feels very domestic, regardless of who you are doing it for. John Mayer reminds me of this crazy summer teaching at sleep away camp, teenage love and heartbreak and being slightly rebellious. The sounds of Continuum serenading my memories while I prepare a very domestic Sunday Chicken dinner fills a need I wasn’t even aware I had. Thanks for always being there John Mayer, when I was 16 and now.
Vinyl: John Mayer – Continuum
Roasted Chicken with Mustard Greens
Prep Time – 20 minutes
Cook Time – 80 minutes
Total Time – 110 minutes
Ingredients
- 1/2 lemon, sliced into rounds
- 5 garlic cloves
- 2 rosemary sprigs
- 1 – 3 to 4 pound chicken
- 2 tbsp avocado oil
- Kosher salt
- Ground pepper
- 1 pound of mustard greens
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Stuff the chicken with the lemon rounds, garlic and rosemary sprigs. Pat the outside dry with a paper towel or two and rub the avocado oil on the skin of the bird. Season generously with salt and pepper. Place the chicken in a roasting pan with the breast side up and put into the oven.
- Roast the chicken for 15 minutes and then reduce the temperature of the oven to 375 degrees F. Roast for another 30 minutes. Baste the chicken with the pan juices and continue to roast until the juices run clear, around another 30 minutes.
- While the chicken is cooking, remove the tough stems from the mustard greens and tear the leaves into bite size pieces.
- Remove the chicken from the oven. Increase the temperature back to 450 degrees F. Carefully place the chicken on the cutting board or into another roasting pan. Remember to let the chicken rest for 10 minutes before you cut into here. You are removing the chicken from the roasting pan because this is where the magic happens. Leave all of the drippings from the chicken in the pan. Take your freshly torn mustard green leaves and put them in the pan with the drippings. Mix the greens in with the drippings and place the roasting pan with the greens back into the oven.
- After 5 minutes, the mustard greens should be bright green, pull them out of the oven and season with salt and pepper.
- When the chicken is rested, carve and serve on a bed of roasted mustard greens.
Notes
You could easily roast chicken thighs or breast and use those drippings to cook the mustard greens, but for me there is something seductive about a perfect whole roasted chicken where it feels like you conquered the world. They must have called them engagement chickens years ago precisely because of this.
I love that these mustard greens still have the option to be slightly crisp, the drippings help remove any bitterness and aside from the chicken, the greens take 5 minutes to cook. If you have schmaltz in your kitchen, you could just use that and have delicious mustard greens in mere minutes.
Serve this with a rosé and some crusty whole wheat bread.