I honestly appreciate any food that is cooked for me more than most people,” says Johnathan Leonard of The Ashby Inn & Restaurant. “If I don’t have to cook on the holidays, that is another bonus to the day off.”
Luckily, Leonard doesn’t have to travel far on those days off. The chef was born in Fairfax and grew up in Leesburg. And his family isn’t relying on him to be a chef when he’s not in his Paris kitchen.
His family’s Christmas celebrations center on a potluck meal. “Everyone will bring something, but nothing really has a theme per se. Everybody just brings their favorite dish that we’ve had in the past.” He’s one of six children, so there’s no shortage of cooks. Leonard mentions his sister’s pimiento cheese as a favorite that she’s been making for years, a nod to their late grandmother, who first made the dish for their family gatherings.
His chicken recipe, included here, is intended for smaller gatherings than his family’s, but he says that home cooks can easily scale up by using the same methods on a duck or a turkey. “You just need to adjust your cooking time,” he explains.
The oyster stuffing, he says, is based on his father’s recipe. “We were kind of a big seafood family,” he says. Another holiday favorite was his father’s crab soup. His father’s acumen in the kitchen helped inspire Leonard to make cooking a career, but in the end, the decision was practical, he says. “My dad said that I needed to find a job with good security,” he explains. “I figured everyone needs to eat.”
But when the holidays arrive, Leonard is perfectly happy to let someone else do the cooking.
Johnathan Leonard / Executive chef
The Ashby Inn & Restaurant
692 Federal St., Paris
Whole Roasted Chicken with Root Vegetables
Servings: 4
Start to finish: 3 hours, 30 minutes
INGREDIENTS
One 3- to 4-pound roasting chicken
1 medium carrot, peeled
1 medium rutabaga, peeled
1 medium yellow onion
1 medium turnip, peeled
2 medium parsnips, peeled
1 medium celery root
¼ ounce fresh sage, chopped, divided
¼ ounce fresh thyme, chopped, divided
Kosher salt
Black pepper
½ cup butter, softened
DIRECTIONS
Unwrap chicken, and let it air dry in refrigerator for 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 325°F. Cut carrot, rutabaga, onion, turnip, parsnips and celery root into 1-inch slices. Combine chopped vegetables, half of the chopped sage, half of the chopped thyme and desired amount of salt and pepper; set aside.
Remove chicken from refrigerator. With a fork, whip butter with remaining sage and remaining thyme. Rub compound butter on chicken between breast meat and skin.
Stuff chicken with seasoned vegetables. (Place any vegetables that don’t fit inside chicken underneath it in roasting pan.) Roast chicken and vegetables in preheated oven 1 hour and 15 minutes, until skin is golden and vegetables are tender.
Oyster and Pumpernickel Dressing
Servings: 4
Start to finish: 1 hour, 25 minutes
INGREDIENTS
½ medium yellow onion
½ medium leek
1 celery rib
¼ cup unsalted butter, divided
2 tablespoons chardonnay
8 ounces shucked select oysters, meat and liquid separated
1 loaf day-old pumpernickel bread, diced
½ ounce chopped thyme
Kosher salt
Black pepper
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350°F. Cut onion, leek and celery into 3/8-inch cubes. In a pan over medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons butter. Add vegetables to pan, and saute until soft. Add chardonnay to pan, and cook until mixture is reduced by half. Add remaining 2 tablespoons butter to pan and cook until butter is melted and well combined.
In a large mixing bowl, combine oyster meat, bread and thyme. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add vegetable mixture to bowl; stir to combine. Stir in oyster liquid as needed until bread pieces are moist.
Grease a 9-by-9-inch baking pan. Transfer dressing to pan, and bake in preheated oven 35 minutes.
