Barefoot Stacey

Barefoot Contessa's Lemon Chicken and Croutons, French Made Easy Update:

This dish turned out pretty good.....the croutons turn into kind of a rustic stuffing once all the juices are poured over them. I used an herb focaccia bread to make the croutons. For our side of veggies I cut up a rutabaga, red pepper, fennel bulb, cipollini onions, baby carrots and cauliflower tossed in olive oil, thyme and rosemary, salt & pepper and roasted it off. I don't know that I am ready to call myself Barefoot Stacey but I did a pretty good job. The chicken was roasted to perfection...it literally fell apart. I have made a number of her desserts but this is the first major meal of hers that I have prepared.

Cipollini Onions
Pronounced chip-oh-LEE-nee this is a smaller, flat, pale onion. The flesh is a slight yellowish color and the skins are thin and papery. The color of the skin ranges from pale yellow to the light brown color of Spanish onions. These are sweeter onions, having more residual sugar than garden-variety white or yellow onions, but not as much as shallots.
The advantage to cipollinis is that they are small and flat and the shape lends them well to roasting. This combined with their sweetness makes for a lovely addition to recipes where you might want to use whole caramelized onions.