“Why did the chicken cross the road?”
It was free range, of course.

This is a slight twist on the classic old joke, with a modern reframing. Roasting a chicken is a classic memory from most of our childhoods but something I had never really done before, not a whole chicken. While at the Saturday Alachua County Farmers Market on North 441, I discovered Laughing Chicken Farm, no joke. They are proud to be very local, from Trenton, Florida, and proud to be free range using no hormones, no chemicals and no antibiotics. They use a mobile chicken coop based on the Joel Salatin methodology discussed in Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma. They have photos of their visit to his farm on display at their booth. Through his Polyface Farm, Joel has pioneered the pasture-fed movement with chickens as outlined in his 1993 book Pastured Poultry Profit$. The focus is on producing clean and healthy food that doesn’t harm the environment, and moving your chickens around a pasture gives them plenty of natural feed and lets their droppings function as a positive fertilizer, rather than a toxic coating to one area of the farm.

Their prices are higher than a supermarket and the roasters come frozen unless you go out to the farm for a fresh bird, but the flavors of the roasted bird were stunning and noticeably different. They have to make the legal disclaimer that their chickens are “Animal Food Only. Not for Human Consumption. Not processed in an FDACS permitted facility.” <wink wink, nudge nudge> At some point we really need to find a way to adapt our protective regulations to allow for local, conscientious animal husbandry without the need to call it all pet food, though we were kind enough to share some of the roaster with our pets.

For whole chickens their prices are $10 for a mini roaster, then $12 for a small, $14 for a medium, $16 for a large and $18 for a jumbo. They also sell parts and free-range eggs, as well as rabbit, turkey and fresh veggies. I wanted to feature the flavors of the bird so went to Nigella Lawson’s classic preparation for a roast bird. After a quick clean, post defrosting, I slathered the outer skin in olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt and freshly ground pepper. I placed sliced onions on the bottom of my roasting pan and shoved a half lemon, some sprigs of rosemary and a couple of garlic cloves into the bird. I didn’t do a full truss, but folded the wings under the thighs and crossed the legs. I roasted the bird in a 395º oven for 15 minutes per pound plus 10 minutes, but I used a meat thermometer to be sure we were done. The house smelled like a Sunday dinner, exciting all of the animals in a way that supermarket chickens just don’t. Halfway through the roasting I added fingerling potatoes to the roasting pan to soak up all of that chicken juice. Fresh, local beets and carrots from the Farmers Market made up the other side, simply roasted in olive oil while the chicken cooked. This became the perfect Farmers Market meal for any locavore (who happens to be an omnivore). Post carving and picking, the left over chicken roast made an incredible stock that became the base of a number of subsequent soups, so nothing was wasted.

Classically we pair Chardonnay with roast chicken and we experimented with a few. Though all worked fine, my favorite was a Columbia Valley Chardonnay from Washington State, Waterbrook 2007. On first whiff I got pear and lemon zest, with tart citrus flavors on the palate and a hint of grapefruit, leading to a mineral finish. This is not an over-oaked butterball Chardonnay, and that fruit acidity worked so well with the lemony chicken flavors of the meal. My final impressions of the wine while eating included vanilla notes and a hint of fig, so plenty of complexity to enhance the flavors of the meal. At $13 per bottle this is a very affordable wine.

My second Chardonnay choice was the Duck Duck Goose 2008 from Rocland Estates in South Australia. This is a fruit-forward style of Chardonnay with hints of citrus zest and some barrel-fermented notes in toasty oak characters, but not full on California malo-lactic style. Again there was plenty of fruit acidity, maybe even more pineapple and star fruit on the palate, which made the wine lighter and zestier. This Chardonnay wasn’t quite as complex as the Waterbrook, and enhanced the lemon characters of the meal but didn’t have quite the richness of the first choice. At $12 per bottle this is also a very affordable wine but might pair better with a creamy lemon chicken preparation with all of that fresh citrus character.

My final Chardonnay choice, Veramonte Reserva 2008 from Chile was the most oak-driven of the wines. I got hints of pear and kiwi on the nose and then a round and ripe character on the palate, with plenty of malo-lactic viscosity. The oak is very present on the finish, with a final sense of butter and herb, which did work well with the flavors of the roasted chicken, but the oak seemed a bit heavy to really appreciate the subtle characters of this particularly delectable bird. Between $10 and $12 this is another affordable Chardonnay, but it might be better alone or with fatty cheeses since the oak over-shadowed the meal. All three of these wines are available locally at Gator Spirits and Fine Wines and The Wine and Cheese Gallery, and often at most local supermarkets, or at least Fresh Market.

If you need to choose a red, then maybe a Spanish Garnacha like the Atteca Old Vines 2008 would be a nice accompaniment, or even the 2007 Juan Gil Monastrell with a Parker 90 score. We wouldn’t want a red that is too tannic or heavy, since we still want to get all of the fresh flavors of the bird. A softer red wine would also bring out some sweet tones in the carrots and beets and give a little more complexity to the overall pairing. If you haven’t roasted your own local chicken, Laughing Chicken Farm is a great source to begin the journey, and well worth crossing the road.