Rosemary Chicken

Wanda Adams’ recipe for roast chicken features rosemary, prized in Portuguese culture not just for its culinary value, but also for its protective ability — to ward off the evil eye, they say. The recipe is featured in “A Portuguese Kitchen.” The book is currently out of print.

• 5- to 6-pound whole roasting chicken, washed in cold water
• >> Brine:
• 1 gallon cold water
• 3/4 cup Hawaiian salt
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 to 3 fresh sprigs rosemary
• >> For roasting:
• Flaked sea salt, to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• Dash powdered, dried rosemary (optional)
• Olive oil, to glaze chicken
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tart cooking apple, unpeeled, chopped
• 2 to 3 sprigs fresh rosemary

Four or five hours before serving: Prepare brine in nonreactive and nonstick soup pot, plastic tub, pressed foam cooler, insulated cooler bag or other container large enough to accommodate water and chicken. Combine cold water, salt, sugar and oil. Break rosemary sprigs and rub well in your hands, then drop into brine. Add chicken and brine 2 hours.

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Remove chicken from brine, rinse well and pat dry. Place salt, pepper and powdered rosemary, if using, into small bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and work into a paste. Rub chicken with paste inside and out. Place onion, apple and remaining rosemary sprigs inside chicken.

With cotton kitchen string, truss legs together. Cut slit in skin on either side and tuck wing tips under skin. Roast 90 minutes.

Chicken is done when it is caramel-brown, juices run clear when thighs are pierced and internal temperature at thickest part of thigh is 160 degrees. Tent chicken with foil and allow to rest 10 minutes before carving. Serves 6-8.

Nutritional information unavailable.