Cider-Roasted Chicken

Jay was here for dinner tonight, so I wanted to do something kind of light. As soon as I saw the photo of this on the cover of Cooking Light, I knew I wanted to make it. I make a cider-basted turkey for Thanksgiving, and I always love the results. I made two 3-lb. chickens instead of one large chicken. Larry and Jay really liked tonight's meal. The cookies I made were from a Splenda dessert cookbook I got Jay for his birthday - I told him to mark the things he liked and I would make them. This was the first.

- I used Kosher chickens, so I reduced the amount of salt in the brine by half. I thought the recipe made way too much brine. Half probably would have been sufficient. I didn't have time to brine overnight, but I brined for a good part of the day. I butterflied the chickens, and instead of putting onion, garlic and parsley in the cavity, I sliced the onion and laid it with the garlic and parsley on the rack - then I just put the chickens on top. The drippings were excellent.
- I started out thinking I would make the sweet potato fries in the same Cooking Light article, but I modified them once I started making them. I left out the red pepper, since Jay doesn't like spicy. I just tossed them in a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper (instead of spraying them with cooking spray). They were excellent. I used small sweet potatoes from Trader Joe's.
- The cookies turned out okay. Jay likes them, and that's all that matters. I don't like Splenda so I didn't expect to like them. I added walnuts to the mix.

• Cider-Roasted Chicken (Cooking Light, October 2004, p. 154)
• Spicy Sweet Potato Wedges (Cooking Light, October 2004, p. 158)
• Baby Spinach Salad with Tomatoes, Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar
• Chocolate Chip Cookies (Unbelievable Desserts with Splenda, Marlene Koch, p. 56)

Wine: Rosenblum 2000 RustRidge Vineyard Zinfandel (Napa Valley, California). A really big, juicy fruitbomb. Yum.