Pleasant House

spit roast

In my never-ending quest to keep posts light and refreshing, here’s one on last night’s dinner. After experiencing the phenomenon known as Whole Food’s Lincoln Park, Chelsea and I knew that if we were going to cook dinner it was going to be a whole lot less hectic than our trip to WF. Don’t get me wrong, we had fun there and will be back when we have a half day to enjoy it. After all, it has not only a beer bar but also a wine and cheese bar!

wine and cheese bar at Lincoln Park Whole Foods

I came up with the idea to cook something on the spit. “Set it and forget it,” I thought. We went with some Kosher chicken thighs that I seasoned with lavender salt and piment d’Espillete. The rest of the ingredients were a bit of a mash-up of ideas and ingredients that would all come together as a light yet comforting meal.

Chelsea was reminded of the polenta that we had on Thanksgiving and felt like having it for dinner. But we had a pumpkin on the countertop that we needed to transform from decoration into food. So, we made a pumpkin-polenta mash-up, upon which the spit-roasted chicken thighs nestled. She wanted some sort of a chutney or a relish to go with the chicken, and we both wanted a fresh vegetable. I combined roasted broccoli rabe, shallots, homemade chile jam, preserved lemon, and thin slices of carrot to create a little fresh vegetable salsa mash-up.

spit-roasting Kosher chicken thighs over little potatoes

pumpkin and polenta

In order to take advantage of the golden-schmaltzy goodness that dripped from the Kosher chicken thighs, I placed a bunch of tiny marble potatoes that had been sitting around during the week doing nothing in a pan underneath the twirling chicken thighs. I tossed a few of those on the plate, because if any day calls for multiple starchy foods, it’s Sunday. And everything went oh so well with a cold bottle of Bell’s Sparkling Ale.

Bell's Sparkling Ale

spit-roasted chicken thighs, pumpkin polenta, roasted broccoli rabe salsa