Gonzo De-Boned Rolled Quarters

Trying to get a little funky, I decided to pull out an old trick. The missus and I had gone to the big Sunday farmers market in our neck of the woods and picked up some nice goat cheese, and in order to make sure it doesn't go bad, I've been finding things for it.

One was the rolled thigh. This dish can be done with any kind of stuffing, or no stuffing at all. It doesn't even need to be rolled, really. It's the carving that's the star here.

The cut is a chicken leg quarter. And the carve is to remove the thigh bone and drumstick, leaving the thigh meat and leg meat intact on a sheet of skin. Maybe I should have a tutorial demonstration, but until then, see the picture:

You don't need to be a butcher to get this. All you need is patience and a sharp knife. Go slowly. Really that's it. It just takes time and sharp knife.

This next picture has the string with which I'll be tying the quarters, and the goat cheese getting ready to be lined:

Here are the rolled and tied quarters:

The starch from this meal was also purchased at the market: fingerling potatoes. I was going to roast them old school, like back at Inside Park, a restaurant I worked at in Manhattan. I started with minced garlic (fresh from the market) and some chopped rosemary from out on our balcony.

Then I added salt and pepper and olive oil, and then the potatoes, halved and rinsed and then dried off. In New York I would've added chopped thyme as well, but I don't have any here.

Then onto a sheet tray, and into the oven. My oven was off a little, so I didn't get the color I was looking for on them, but they tasted very good.

Besides showing off how filthy my oven is, you can see the potatoes and the chicken working together. The chicken was done in a half sexy, half stewing way. First, you need your pan to be able to go into the oven. Then you get a little screaming hot, shimmering and beginning to smoke. Put the chicken down skin side down.

For these rolled quarters, it's three quarters skin, so you need to roll it around like you would for stewing meat, and get some color on all sides. Then leave them cut side up, and wait for them to finish. That could take anywhere from 15 to nearly 30 minutes, depending on your oven and what else might be inside.

But in the end, you get something like this:

And here's the final meal. Gonzo Rolled Quarters, Manhattan Fingerlings, and farm delivered butter lettuce salad.

We like our meals balanced.