French Fridays Roast Chicken for Les Paresseux

Today is French Fridays with Dorie where I among other members of Dorie's cooking club post photos of a recipe that we created from her book. This month we have 4 recipes to prepare where we choose which ones to fix each week. This week I made the Roast Chicken for Les Paresseux.

Les Paresseux are lazy people, and this is a recipe perfect for them - and the rest of us too - because once you put the chicken in the oven, you've got nothing more to do but pull it out when the timer buzzes ninety minutes or so later.

The recipe is so simple to prepare. Although I'm not allowed to share the recipe it's just basically a whole chicken with various veggies and liquid that roast for 90 minutes with a special treat set beneath the chicken as it roasts. YUM!

This is something I could see preparing on a weekly basis especially when time is of the essence and I have other things to do besides stand in front of the stove for two hours.

This recipe along with the one I posted last Friday for Marie-Helene's Apple Cake are from Dorie Greenspans book Around My French Table. The book is stunning with beautiful photos and more than 300 recipes. You owe it to yourself to check out the book or purchase it from Amazon or your local bookstore. The recipes all appear to be user friendly with incredible results.

Next Friday, I'm not sure which recipe I'll select but I'm certain it will taste as good if not better than the others I've tried.

Oh and by the way, feel free to join the cooking club as well. There are no fees or requirements other than purchasing the book to get the recipes. The best part is you meet new foodies, share ideas, and learn lots of great french recipes. You have nothing to lose!

French Fridays with Dorie

French Fridays with Dorie is an online cooking group dedicated to Dorie Greenspan‘s newest book, "Around My French Table". The members of this group, me included, are going to cook our way through AMFT one recipe at a time. It is going to be a very tasty adventure. Please feel free to join in!

I've never done a cooking club like this before but a foodie friend of mine Amy cooked her way through "Tuesdays with Dorie" the baking group blog and loved it. Plus I loved reading about the recipes she tried each week.

So when Amy told me about Dorie's new book I thought I'd join in the group. There's no committment, in fact once a week there's a recipe that Dorie assigns based upon what the members vote on. Then on Fridays we post our photo and share our thoughts about the recipe. Of course I can't share the recipe with you but if you want you can order it on Amazon.

Since I just joined the group I've missed a few of the Friday posts that have been baked and tested. This weeks was Marie-Helene's Apple Cake on page 432 in "Around My French Table". The aroma in my house while baking was heavenly and the taste of this cake was decadent and so smooth.

I have to admit that I didn't use apples. We had just received a box of pears from Harry & David so I decided it would be the perfect dish to use them in, and it was. I can only imagine how wonderful it will be when I make it with apples.



The recipe also called for an 8" springform pan. I had a 7", 9", 9.5" and 10". So I decided to use the 7". I was concerned if I used the 9" that the cake would be too thin. The 7" worked out perfectly. However, instead of cooking it for the 50-60 minutes that it stated, I had to cook it for 90 minutes to insure that the center was cooked properly. At around the 75th minute I placed a piece of tin foil over the top of the cake to make sure it didn't brown too much. As you can see it looks perfect.



I also decided that I'd plate it up with a scoop of ice cream and then drizzle it with a balsamic reduction that I made earlier. YUM! That's all I can tell you.



This recipe was so simple and the results were outstanding! If you enjoy this type of group then please join the club, the more the merrier! But, if that's not your cup of tea then you should definitely consider purchasing Dorie's book "Around My French Table". It's beautiful and the recipes all look sensational. I can't wait to try next weeks recipe.

Here's to my first cooking club adventure with French Fridays with Dorie.

Bon Appetit!