Roast Chicken Salad

Recently, my Mom's friends have been having a monthly cookbook dinner, were the host chooses the cookbook and then each person, or family, chooses a recipe to bring. Two months ago, my Mom's friends Sue and John hosted the party. Since Sue had just returned from Great Britain in December, she choose  Jamie Oliver's, Jamie's Great Britain. Of course, every time we get the cookbook, we try to pick a recipe where we can use a majority of local ingredients. Through Utah Farms CSA, we had received some greens from Julie Clifford and had some bacon from her farm that we bought last summer and froze, we substituted frozen corn from last summer for the green beans, used fresh local bread from Harmon's that uses local wheat, chicken from the McDowell's, mint and parsley we grow ourselves and garlic from Utah Farms CSA so that the only thing not local was the mustard! 

Everyone enjoyed it and I am sure we will be making it again.

Ingredients:

4 lb. free range chicken (McDowell Family Farm)
olive oil or butter
Redmond Sea Salt and freshly ground pepper
few sprigs of thyme (from our garden)
1 lemon
2 cups cherry tomatoes (Utah Farms CSA)
1 bulb garlic
1 country loaf of bread, torn into one inch cubes (we love Harmans)
6 pieces of country bacon (Clifford Family Farm)
2 cups corn kernels (from the summer), thawed
1 tablespoonful whole grain mustard
2 tablespoonfuls honey vinegar (Slide Ridge Honey Vinegar)
a bunch of fresh parsley, chopped
a bunch of fresh mint, chopped
some chives

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place chicken on medium to large roasting pan. Drizzle olive oil all over the chicken, or if using butter, place pats of butter under the skin of the chicken and the rub a little on the outside of the skin. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Take thyme leaves and rub all over the skin of the chicken. Cut the lemon in half and place it, along with the thyme sprigs, into the chicken cavity. Place in the oven and set the timer for one hour. Meanwhile, half the cherry tomatoes and then smash the garlic bulb, discarding the skins. After about 30 minutes, put the tomatoes and garlic into the bottom of the roasting pan and stir to make sure the tomatoes are coated with the juices. Cook for additional 30 minutes or until done.
2. Transfer the roasted chicken to a plate and cover with foil. Let cool.
3. Toss the bread cubes into the roasting pan and toss them until they are coated with the juices. Spread the cubes of bread out in the tray and place the strips of bacon on top. Put the pan back into the oven and cook for 15-20 minutes or until the bread and bacon are crispy and golden.
4. Once the chicken has cooled, remove all the chicken skin and set aside. Strip all the meat off of the bone (don't forget to save the carcass and skin to make some chicken broth).  Add the thawed corn, about 5-6 tbls. of extra-virgin olive oil, the wholegrain mustard and the vinegar. Add the parsley, mint and chives and stir well.
5. Add the croutons to the chicken mixture and toss well right before serving.