Smell-O-Vision Pan Roasted Chicken with Rosemary

This is one of my favorite dishes, to make, smell  and to eat. I love making it because the house is overtaken by heavenly aromas once the chicken is roasting on the cooktop with the rosemary. Just describing the recipe and showing a picture doesn't do it justice - I truly wish I had smell-o-vision technology to share the supreme luciousness of this dish. I learned to make it from an Italian woman, Giovanna Cappi, who was originally from Lake Como (you know, where George Clooney vacations). She also taught me to make my own pasta, but that I will save for a different post. When she showed me to do this, she cut up a whole chicken, but I only use bone-in breasts with the skin on. 40 minutes roasting with white wine and rosemary and a little garlic. Oh, and it tastes wonderful as well. The juices in are pan-licking good. Somebody should find a way to bottle aromas such as this into a household spray - I'd be the first in line to buy it.

Smell-O-Vision,  first used in a commercial film titled the "Scent of Mystery" in 1960. The concept, releasing aromas into a theatre to coincide with certain scenes was not new, it had been tried at the New York World's Fair in 1939 (wasn't everything?), but this was the first foray of an additional D (1D, 2D, 3D) into general audience theatres. The film was released in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, and quickly failed - the technology didn't live up to the hype and depending on where you were seated in the movie theatre you were either overcome by scents or received the delayed after odor. By the time the system was fixed and working in sync with the film it was too late - fickle movie goers had had enough and the film was dubbed a failure. Fast forward to 1981 and the brilliant John Waters/Divine/Tab Hunter masterpiece Polyester was dubbed as "Scentsational" and featured "Odorama" where theatre patrons were given scratch and sniff cards to utilize during designated scenes in the film. Not since the paper 3-D glasses of the 1950s had a movie gimmick failed so miserably that it stunk up every theatre in town.


The Recipe:

1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
3 1/2 pound chicken, cut into four pieces
1 sprig fresh rosemary broken in two (I use at least two sprigs, the more the merrier)
kosher salt
fresh ground pepper
1/2 cup dry white wine (I usually need more)
2 garlic cloves

Heat butter and oil over med-high until butter is melted. Add chicken skin side down. Brown chicken well on both sides, then add garlic and rosemary. Cook garlic until it becomes pale gold, then add salt, pepper and wine. Let the wine simmer briskly for 30 seconds then adjust heat to a slow simmer. Cover pan with lid slightly ajar (to release the smelly goodness). Cook 40-45 minutes. If pan liquid becomes insufficient, add more wine as needed. Transfer chicken to a warm platter. Remove garlic and rosemary. Tip the pan, spooning all but a little of the fat. Turn heat to high and boil, loosening residue from the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Pour pan juices over the chicken and serve, whiffing all the way.