By Mother's Day again. The second one since I started writing, and the first one where I understand that the blog has given me a new way to honor Sylvia — not just in my kitchen, where I have been honoring her for decades, but in words, where the honoring is public and permanent and reaches people who never met my mother but who now know her through the brisket and the matzo ball soup and the rugelach and the kitchen on the Grand Concourse that was four square feet of sovereignty.
David sent lilies again. He is consistent in his floral choices, and I love him for it. Rebecca called early — earlier than last year, at seven-thirty, which suggests she is either becoming more of a morning person or was too anxious about the call to sleep. She said, "Happy Mother's Day, Mama. I made your challah." I said, "How was it?" She said, "The braid was almost right." I said, "Almost right is the second-best kind of right." She laughed. We both knew the joke was also the truth: there is Sylvia's braid, and then there is everyone else's, and the gap is the distance between a grandmaster and a very good student, and neither Rebecca nor I will close it, and that is fine, because the trying is the tribute.
I made Sylvia's roast chicken for Mother's Day dinner. Not brisket — chicken. Because Mother's Day was always chicken in the Rosen house. Sylvia roasted a chicken every Sunday, but the Mother's Day chicken was special: she rubbed it with lemon and garlic and paprika and roasted it until the skin was golden and crackly and the meat fell off the bone, and she served it with rice and green beans and the unspoken understanding that this meal was for her, that the Sunday cooking she did for the family was, on this one day, the family cooking for her, even though she wouldn't let anyone near the stove. Sylvia's idea of being cooked for was supervising someone else's cooking from a chair. The control did not diminish on Mother's Day. The control was the celebration.
Marvin said, at dinner, "You're a remarkable mother." I said, "I had a remarkable teacher." He said, "She would say you were adequate." He is right. She would. And I would hear it as the love letter it was, because Sylvia's adequacy was everyone else's excellence, and her standard was the standard I have spent my life trying to meet, and on Mother's Day I come closest, because the chicken is golden and the table is set and the memory is fresh, and I am my mother's daughter, and the kitchen is warm, and this is enough. This is always enough.
The chicken my mother made was never written down anywhere—it lived in her hands, in her timing, in the particular confidence she brought to a stove she would not share. I can’t make her chicken, not really, but I can make mine: golden and bone-in and honest, roasted on a single pan with the green beans she would have approved of. This is the version I come back to when I want to feel like I’m cooking toward something.
Sheet Pan Italian Chicken and Vegetables
Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 45 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour | Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs and/or drumsticks (about 2 1/2 lbs total)
- 1 lb baby potatoes, halved
- 2 cups green beans, trimmed
- 1 red bell pepper, sliced into strips
- 1 zucchini, sliced into half-moons
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 lemon, zested and juiced (about 3 tablespoons juice)
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- Fresh parsley, chopped, for serving
Instructions
- Preheat the oven. Heat oven to 425°F. Line a large rimmed sheet pan with foil or parchment paper for easy cleanup.
- Make the seasoning rub. In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, minced garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, smoked paprika, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper.
- Season the chicken. Pat the chicken pieces dry with paper towels — this is the key to golden, crackly skin. Rub half the seasoning mixture all over the chicken, working it under the skin where possible.
- Prep the vegetables. Add the halved potatoes to the sheet pan and toss with the remaining seasoning mixture. Spread them in a single layer, then nestle the seasoned chicken pieces skin-side up among the potatoes.
- Roast the chicken and potatoes. Transfer to the oven and roast for 25 minutes, until the chicken skin begins to turn golden and the potatoes are starting to soften.
- Add the remaining vegetables. Scatter the green beans, bell pepper strips, and zucchini around the chicken. Return the pan to the oven and roast for another 18 to 20 minutes, until the chicken skin is deeply golden and crispy, the juices run clear, and an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thickest part reads 165°F.
- Rest and serve. Let the chicken rest for 5 minutes before serving. Scatter fresh chopped parsley over the pan and bring it straight to the table — the way every good Sunday chicken should be served.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 420 | Protein: 34g | Fat: 22g | Carbs: 24g | Fiber: 4g | Sodium: 480mg