Dinner at Shields Tavern, Williamsburg, Part II. It's my turn to cook.

Ok, the picture doesn't do the dish justice.  I did take it with my phone.  And, this is only my plate, so you'll notice there's only a few bites of squash in the upper corner.  :)

I think I did pretty good with this dish.  I decided to plate it a little differently than it was plated at Shields Tavern... let each food item stand on it's own and put the Madeira sauce in the middle.  There's a reason for that... read on.

I decided to cook almost everything on our grill, kinda sorta in the fashion that would be done in colonial times... except that they cooked in a kitchen that was not attached to their house and had a fireplace and coals and such.  I figured the grill was outside of my house (although run off a gas line attached to the house).  The whole idea of having a separate kitchen was a great idea.  You didn't have the smell of the food lingering for hours in the living spaces, and if your kitchen burned down, you didn't lose your whole house.  I hope to NEVER burn down my kitchen, and I really wish I had cooked the Madeira sauce outside.  My house smells like onions, still, today, and I made this meal yesterday!

I'll start with my least favorite item: the veggies.  I got some green and yellow squash at the Fredericksburg farmers market by Hurkamp park.  I like that I can get the variety of fresh produce daily at that location... helps with fresh meals.  I cut them into 1/2 inch thick pieces, brushed on some extra virgin olive oil (evoo) along with some salt and pepper.  They went on the grill for about 6-8 minutes as the chicken and potatoes were finishing up.  I'll admit, I did enjoy them... and think I'll make more for dinner tomorrow. 

The potatoes:  red potatoes I picked up at the farmer's market as well.  I cut them into equal-ish sized wedges, coated with evoo, salt and pepper.  I put them into a foil pouch and placed them on the grill for about 20 or so minutes.  They turned out really good.  Nice and soft on the inside.  Slightly crispy on the outside.

The chicken:  I borrowed this recipe from a weekend trip we took to our friends' house in Waynesboro, VA.  They made an awesome beer can chicken.  So did I.  The recipe is in a Weber's cook book "Real Grilling."  I figured it was a great way to make a roasted chicken.  It used the same herbs I could taste on the chicken I had at Shields Tavern... thyme and rosemary, and a hint of garlic.  The recipe also calls for paprika, which I did use, but think I should have used a spicier pepper to more closely mimic the kick the chicken at the restaurant had.  This was one of my "live and learn" moments.  None the less, the chicken was great.  Very moist on the inside and out.  Very flavorful from the herbs and spices, and nicely crispy from the flames that enjoyed the dripping fat.  (another live and learn moment when I opened the grill to a bonfire).  In the picture above, you are seeing just the leg and thigh... I'm more of a dark meat fan, so Darryl had the pleasure of enjoying the white meat.  During carving though, I did sneak a piece and it was just as moist as the dark meat.

The Madeira Sauce:  this was probably my best "live and learn" moment.  First off, don't cook onions in a house with closed up windows.  Like I said, my house still smells like onion.  This is one of the recipes I took from a cook book I bought in Colonial Williamsburg: "Favorite Meals from Williamsburg."  In the book, the sauce is introduced for the Yuletide Supper and served on top of boneless breast of chicken with Virginia ham.  I don't want to give away the whole recipe, but it does involve minced carrot, minced onion, butter, beef broth, flour and about an hour of simmering.  Then you make a second flavor layer by simmering shallots in Madeira for about 10 minutes.  You mix the two layers together and simmer for another 15 minutes.  Serve warm.  My flavor was great, you could really taste each ingredient, and I used low sodium beef broth, so it was not too salty.  My only problem was that it was so thick.  Even thicker than gravy.  I had to stir in extra beef broth to thin it out.  This is why I decided to serve it in the middle of the plate and not over any of the ingredients, allowing the diner to add as much or as little of the sauce to their food as they desired.

As much as I really enjoyed the Whipped Chocolate Pudding, I did not make it as a dessert for this meal.  I will make that another time when I have dessert loving people around to help me enjoy it.

So, overall, I would definitely cook this meal again.  It was a bit time consuming since the sauce takes about an hour and a half, as does the chicken, but it was a really good meal.

The cost?  Well, I spent $5 at the farmers market, but picked up potatoes for two days worth of meals, garlic, a red and green pepper, the two squash, an onion (which I only used a very small part of) and two carrots (again, only using a small part of one carrot).  Wegmans came in handy for everything else.  With the chicken, broth, Madeira, butter and beer (only using a half a can), the total meal for the two of us, with some leftovers, cost about $30.00.