Roast Chicken with Macerated Tomatoes

I have a lot of free time this evening, so why not keep going for a little bit? Here's a meal I put together this past Sunday, drawing inspiration from a fabulous dinner I had in NYC last summer. We also had a huge amount of basil in the fridge that needed to be used, as well as an abnormal amount of cherry tomatoes sitting around.

ROAST CHICKEN WITH MACERATED TOMATOES

I'm actually kind of proud of this photo. It looks semi-professional.

1 whole 3-4 lb chicken
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup kosher salt
8 cups cold water

In a very large bowl combine the salt, sugar and water. Stir to dissolve. Remove all of the guts stuff from the chicken cavity and discard. Place the chicken in the salt and sugar bath and let it brine for at least 1 hour, but no more than 2 hours. Remove the chicken, discard the brining liquid, rinse the chicken thoroughly with cold water, then pat dry.

For the tomatoes:

1 pint yellow cherry tomatoes, halved
2 pints red cherry tomatoes, halved
A large handful of basil leaves, torn or chiffonaded or chopped or whatever
Zest from 1 lemon
Juice from 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Pinch of sugar

Combine everything in a bowl and let it sit for at least 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
In a bowl, combine 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil with about 2-3 tablespoons softened butter. Stir together until you have a nice viscous liquid, then add in 1 teaspoon kosher salt. Set aside.
The chicken needs to be butterflied. To do that, you just need to take a pair of kitchen shears and cut out the backbone, then use the palm of your hand to flatten the breast bone on the other side. Tuck the wings underneath the breasts so the chicken can cook evenly. Place the butterflied chicken on a sheet pan and cover with the oil-butter mixture, making sure to get some of it underneath the skin. Wash your hands and then sprinkle some cracked black pepper over the top of the chicken. Place in the oven and roast for 1 hour, or until the thigh registers 165 degrees F.
Once the chicken is done, pull it out and let it rest for at least 15 minutes to let the juices redistribute. I then quartered it, put it on a platter, and artfully dumped the tomatoes on top.

Now you could probably eat it just like that, but I wanted to do something special on the side: sweet onion marmalade. This is a recipe I adapted from Jamie Oliver's Chili Pepper Chutney--I just left out the peppers and adjusted the seasonings accordingly.

1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon oil
3 onions, thinly sliced (you can do red or white)
1 bay leaf
1 rosemary sprig
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon brown sugar

Melt the butter and oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add in the onions and let them soften for about 5 minutes, then add in the bay leaf, cinnamon stick, and rosemary sprig. Season with salt and pepper and let the onions cook for about 20 minutes--you want them really soft but not caramelized:

Once they are nice and soft add in the red pepper, balsamic vinegar and brown sugar. They will now look like this:

Adjust the heat to medium-low and cook for 40 minutes to 1 hour, until the onions have attained a thick, jam-like consistency. Check for seasonings, then serve alongside the chicken and tomatoes. I put some of this on the chicken first, then topped with the tomatoes. Mmmm. I also served some nice garlic toasts with this meal to sop up all the tomato juices.