Last Saturday I drove out to the Saturday Alachua Farmers Market on 441 a little late, so Laughing Chicken Farms were out of roasters, but Robin still had some leg quarters, so I purchased those. Here is the simple, locavore meal I made with Farmers Market purchases. Sadly there was no local fennel, but I purchased fennel at Ward’s Supermarket on the way home. I just love using fennel with chicken in this way. The onions, the red potatoes and the sweet potatoes all came from the Farmers Market, as well as the amazing free range chicken.

I sliced the fennel and onions and started roasting them low and slow in a deep-dish, bakeable pan, at about 300º to start. I prepped the Farmers Market potatoes and added them after the fennel and onions had cooked for half an hour to an hour. This type of one dish meal also works with other seasonal produce like beets or turnips, and I enjoy the subtle seasonal differences each time I make this Farmers Market meal.

I season the chicken with sea salt and black pepper, and since the chicken is such a great product, I don’t need to mask the flavor with lots of other spices. Some fresh tarragon or oregano from the garden are always a nice addition, and if you have wax peppers I will sometimes slice them and place them on top of the meat. I scatter the other vegetables over the onions and fennel and place the chicken on top. I add about two cups of white wine or chicken stock for a slow braise, rather than just a dry roasting. This will give me the base for an amazing soup on the second day. Cover the pan with the top, if you have one, or with aluminum foil and raise the temperature to 385º. Cook for an hour, though I take the cover off for the last 15 minutes, since I like some crispy skin. For the photo used for this article I grilled the quarters in a cast iron grill pan, to get the pretty grill marks, and then put the chicken on top of the vegetables to bake them all off together and to get more of the chicken juices to marry with the vegetables.

To pair, let’s go for a soft and rich red, since these are darker meat sections of the bird. One of my favorites for summer is Spanish Garnacha. I’ve written about the Borsao Tres Picos and the Atteca Old Vine Garnachas and they would work perfectly, but Vega Sindoa has their new vintage of El Chaparral 2008 Old Vine Garnacha from Navarra, and it would match this meal perfectly. With classic Garnacha cherry notes and real, old vine minerality, this is a superb wine. The cherry is so strong it almost seems like cherry pie or cherry-flavored Jello on the nose, with just a hint of Red Twizzler in Chambord. Next the spicebox and cedar notes come out with just a hint of licorice or even mocha. Big acid on the palate leads to that framing granitic quality, with just a hint of tobacco and charred oak on the finish. This wine is priced around $15, but reveals much more complexity and depth for that price. Even with all of these flavors, the Garnacha doesn’t overpower the chicken, but frames it. The brambly, garrigue qualities of the wine highlight the herbs and fennel, harmonizing that hint of licorice in both the wine and the fennel. Further proof that it doesn’t have to be just white wine with chicken, if you find the right red. Get some local chicken today and give this pairing a try. Support local foods for our own future.