How do you get the best roasted potatoes ever? First, you need to go to Paris…
Oh, that’s not an option? C’est domage. Well, I’m not headed there anytime soon either, so instead I have to make these potatoes myself, at home, surrounded by Americans. But I have figured out a way to emulate the magical potatoes you get in the street markets in Paris, which are truly the best I’ve ever eaten…
At the stalls that specialize in poultry, you can buy a hot bird that’s been cooking on a rotisserie set-up behind the counter; but more important is what is at the bottom of the rotisserie: a layer of nugget-sized potatoes that are placed there to cook in the chicken fat and juices that drip from above. The crisp, tender, chicken fat-shellacked tubers are almost unholy they’re so good, scooped into a paper bag and best eaten hot with your fingers on the way home.
So how to do this at home without a rotisserie and your own poultry stall…
First, you need to roast the potatoes underneath a chicken. Or rather, nestled in and around a chicken like a lumpy potato bed. This is the only way I know to get all of those lovely juices into your potatoes, which means you won’t have it for the gravy but you won’t need gravy. These potatoes are better than gravy.
The second thing you need to do to make these Parisian market-style potatoes
