Roast Capon with Chile Cilantro Rub and Roasted Carrots (Page 399)

RECIPE #989

• Date: Friday, May 8, 2009 -- 7pm
• Location: Bloomington, IN
• Kitchen: My Apartment
• Dining Companion: Matty
• Recipe Rating: A-
  

My special gentleman picked this recipe out for dinner a few weeks back. He was curious about capon (young, neutered male chicken). The idea with capon is that the hormone changes caused by neutering the bird make the meat more marbled and tender. I started this recipe by making a paste of garlic, salt, cilantro, ancho chile powder, cumin, and butter. I then worked some of this paste under the skin of the capon, and I rubbed some of it inside the cavity of the bird. I then put the capon in a roasting pan and surrounded it with carrots. I seasoned the carrots and poured some water over them. Then I roasted it all for several hours, taking it out occasionally to brush more chile butter on the bird, and later to baste with pan juices. I served the capon and carrots with red chile sauce (see post below). This dish was very tasty. The capon did indeed come out very tender, and the meat was nice and moist. The skin was amazing -- so crispy and flavorful! And the sauce went wonderfully with the meat. My special gentleman also loved the carrots. Mysteriously, I didn't like them too much. Generally I love carrots -- absolutely love them. But there was something weird about the texture of these. They were so carmelized that they became almost gummy. My special gentleman thought that was a good thing, I did not. Either way, it was a tasty dish.

Here is the recipe.

Well, the big day is almost here -- we are getting married on Saturday! Tomorrow a few wedding guests are arriving (my parents, and my best friend, her husband, and her son!), which feels like the start of the festivities. Luckily I got most of the last minute stuff done last week because I spent most of this weekend in bed! I get tonsillitis every year. For whatever reason, I am exceptionally prone to it. It doesn't seem contagious -- I have never given it to anyone else. But I haven't made it through a whole year without getting it in the last decade. Typically I get it in the fall, occasionally in the winter. This past fall and winter it never came. But then I got pneumonia, and I figured maybe that meant I was off the hook for tonsillitis this year. No such luck. I woke up on Friday in a lot of pain from an infected tonsil, and it continued to get worse throughout the day. By the afternoon I was sick and miserable. I have had bouts with tonsillitis where I then got bronchitis and ended up sick for more than a week. I absolutely did NOT want that to happen -- it would be so miserable to be sick for my wedding! So I stayed in bed as much as I possibly could from Friday to Sunday, and now I am feeling much better! In fact, I feel almost completely well! Yay! I think by tomorrow I will feel totally fine -- just in time for our first wedding guest arrivals! I am so excited!