Fennel and Roast Chicken Recipe

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Roast Chicken Recipe featuring Fennel

This roast chicken recipe features fennel, or "finocchio" in Italian. It can be made with a whole chicken, or just use buy the parts you like best prepared the same way. Either way this dish is sure to please them all!

Serves 4-5

Ingredients

3-4 lb whole chicken (or pieces)

2 sweet onions, halved

1 stalk of celery, quartered

1 large carrot, peeled and quartered

1 or 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped

1/2 cup olive oil

2 fennel bulbs

salt and pepper

4 thin slices of pancetta (or bacon)...optional

2/3 cup of dry white wine

Set the oven to 350 degrees. If you're using a whole chicken, rinse it in cold water and then pat dry with a a paper towel (inside and out). Sprinkle the inside with salt and pepper and fill with one of the halved onions, half the celery and a piece of carrot. Rub the chicken with a few tablespoons of the olive oil and then place it in a roasting dish or pan.

Remove the green tops of the fennel bulbs, and chop them up, mixing them with the garlic. Then season with a dash of salt and pepper.

Sprinkle the mixture over the chicken, pressing it down so it sticks to the oil on the skin of the chicken. Here you may choose to lay the slices of pancetta across the top of the chicken, and then sprinkle it with a couple more tablespoons of oil. Then let the chicken roast for approximately 30 minutes.

In the meantime, steam the fennel in a pot until they are just barely tender. You can choose to chop them into quarters before or after cooking them. After the chicken has cooked for about half an hour, remove the pan from the oven and baste!

Place the fennel around the chicken. Pour the remaining oil over the vegetables and then pour about half the wine over the chicken... Don't have white wine? Just plain water or chicken stock is a fine substitute. Then return the bird to the oven and let bake for another half an hour.

At this point you should baste the bird again! Pour on the remaining liquid and cook for an additional 15 minutes or until the juices of the chicken run clear.

Serve this roast chicken recipe on a platter surrounded by the cooked fennel with some white rice or potatoes, and it's bound to be a tasty treat for your whole family!

*Wine Pairing Suggestion for this recipe: Orvieto

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