David Lebovitz’s Roast Chicken with Caramelized Shallots (Whole30 Style)

David Lebovitz, will you marry me and be my gay husband? I know I’m not worthy but I’ll promise to adore you, do your laundry, and laugh at all your jokes.

Seriously, he’s one of my favorite food bloggers and cookbook authors of all time. I’m a daily snooper on his site because his posts are so damn funny, witty, and chockfull of fail-proof recipes. Before I morphed into a cavegirl, I was always making one of his ice cream recipes or a batch of his cookies. Maybe that’s why I always had a thick middle…

One of my regular go-to weeknight meals is his savory recipe for roast chicken with shallots. The recipe takes about 5 minutes of prep time and the rest of the cooking is done in the oven. You’ll have plenty of time to make side dishes or even a sidecar cocktail.

Upon closer inspection, his recipe isn’t really Whole30 compliant due to the soy sauce and I don’t want to use extra virgin olive oil since it’s being roasted at a high temperature. I was determined to make it work so I made some substitutions to make the dish more pleasing to my Paleo friends. You’re welcome.

Time to make David Lebovitz’s Roast Chicken with Caramelized Shallots (Whole30 Style)

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons avocado oil (or your favorite Paleo-friendly high smoke point oil)
• 3 tablespoons Banyuls vinegar (or your favorite vinegar – sherry is fantastic!)
• 4 large shallots, peeled and minced (you can also substitute 2 medium onions)
• 1 tablespoon coconut aminos
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 8 chicken thighs, bone-in and skin-on
• large handful of Italian parsley, coarsely chopped

Equipment:

• All of my recommended kitchen tools are listed here.

Method:

I preheated the oven to 425 F. In a 9×13 baking dish, I whisked together the avocado oil, vinegar, shallots, coconut aminos, a generous amount salt (I used 3 large pinches) and freshly ground pepper.

Then, I tossed the chicken with the mixture making sure the pieces were well-coated with shallots.

I turned the chicken skin-side up and popped the dish in the oven. After 20 minutes, I flipped the chicken pieces (making sure to top the chicken pieces with shallots again).

About 25 minutes later, the chicken was finished cooking and the shallots were caramelized. I removed the chicken from the oven…

…flipped it skin side up…

…and tossed on the chopped parsley.

This chicken was really flavorful: slightly tangy, onion-y, and delicious. The dish creates it’s own sauce which you MUST spoon onto your chicken. It smells so damn good while it’s cooking and it’s so effing easy. You should definitely put it in your repertoire!

I’ve tried this recipe with lots of different vinegars (e.g. sherry, red wine, balsamic, champagne) but Banyuls vinegar is awesome. It’s a nicely balanced vinegar made from Banyuls, a dessert wine  produced from old vines cultivated in terraces on the slopes of the Catalan Pyrenees in the Roussillon county of France.

Sounds fancy, doesn’t it? Try it if you can find it!

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Looking for more recipe ideas? Head on over to my Recipe Index. You’ll also find exclusive recipes on my iPhone and iPad app, and in my cookbooks, Nom Nom Paleo: Food for Humans (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2013), Ready or Not! (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2017), and Nom Nom Paleo: Let’s Go! (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2021).

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