I came across chef Matthew Kammerer’s recipe in Food & Wine Magazine for Kombu Roast Chicken with Kaboucha Squash and Daikon… I knew I had some kombu that I needed to use up and I had about the right amount of daikon in my refrigerator (but decided to use radishes instead). I was sort of worried about his recipe because of the method….Anyways the flavors are wonderful….I only changed a few things. I doubled the amount of pepper because a 1/2 teaspoon is just not enough for a whole chicken. I also used coconut oil instead of butter because I thought coconut oil would be good with kombu. It turned out that I did have some difficulty with the method……Maybe you won’t have the same trouble?. ……He said roast until the middle of the breast as at 155 F (about an hour). I cooked mine an hour. At one hour the middle of the breast was 165 F by my thermometer so I took it out to rest…….

Here’s how it came out.

The breast is sous vide perfect and juicy……..but the legs and wing joints are raw. So I cut off all the breast that I could and put it back into the oven.

So it needed 40 more minutes at 400 F in my oven.

Like I said maybe you won’t have the same trouble??????? That is why I usually do white meat and dark separate. The few times when I do a whole bird I do most or all of the time breast down so the dark meat cooks and the white meat doesn’t dry up…That method always works but the down side is that it doesn’t look at pretty and the skin usually is too moist to eat.

You do what you want.

ingredients

1 acorn squash – cut in half, remove seeds and membranes – cut into 8 wedges

one bunch radishes – trimmed or use a daikon in one inch slices

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons sea salt (or to taste)

1 teaspoon black pepper ( or to taste – some on the squash and most for the chicken)

1/8 oz ground dry kombu (I added a small amount of crumbled nori to it about a Tablespoon)

1/4 cup coconut oil

1 Tablespoon garlic – ground to paste

2 teaspoons lemon zest

1 – 3-4 lb whole chicken

Directions

Set oven to 400 degrees F.

Lay out the squash and radishes in the roasting pan and sprinkle them with the olive oil and salt and pepper.

In a small mixing bowl mix together the coconut oil, kombu (and nori if you choose to add that), garlic, lemon zest, 1+ 3/4 teaspoon salt and black pepper.

This mixture goes mostly under the skin of the chicken. When I was done my hand were a mess but I thought those flavors would be good on the skin so I rubbed what was left on my hands all over the chicken. Then the chicken gets placed over the vegetables.

After an hour on my mine the breast was perfect (mine read 165 F degrees)

I removed the breast when mine cooled down.

Then I turned it over so the bottom could cook more. I check mine at 20 minutes and it still wasn’t done so I added another 20 minutes. Then it was done.

The squash, radishes, and chicken really are all delicious. It’s up to you how you want to cook the chicken. If I was doing this same one again I’d just turn it breast down till done at 350 degrees F.

ENJOY!!!!

A Special THANKS!!! To Chef Matthew Kammerer and Food & Wine Magazine so I could do what you see here!