The perfect roast chicken

Posted on 18th November 2008 in Food, Recipes

     This weekend I made a lot of chicken. My goal was to roast a chicken – I had not done that yet – and to make chicken soup with those roasted chicken bones. The chicken soup was a hit. It was perfect.
     First, before I made the roasted chicken soup I had to roast that chicken. I was not sure what a roasted chicken was supposed to look like. Google is the perfect place to look for recipes. I found a couple. Both gave the same basic directions. I added my own little alternatives.

You will need:
• 1 whole organic, free range chicken
• Butter
     Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Rinse the chicken inside and out and pat dry with a towel or paper towel. This will make sure the skin is nice and golden brown and crispy. Place your dried chicken in an oven safe pan. I used a rectangular cake pan. You can separate the skin from the meat with a finger and slide in whatever spices you want. Since Rick can be sensitive to some spices I used only butter.
     Tear off a piece of foil about the size of the chicken and just set in onto the bird. Do not curl it around the pan. Its only job is to keep the breast and skin from cooking faster than the rest of it and thus prevent it from burning. Place the pan in the oven and set the timer for about 30 minutes less that the total cooking time. I had a small chicken about 4lbs. The rule is 20 minutes for each pound of meat. Mine took about 1.5 hours.
Check with about 30 minutes left of total cooking time. I set my timer for one hour and then opened the oven to check it. Set it for 10-15 minutes longer and then upped the temperature to 450 degrees. This is supposed to crisp up the skin more. The chicken is done when it reaches around 170-180 degrees. Mine was at 175 degrees.
     The result was one of the best chickens I have ever had. It was beautiful.
Please excuse the large slice in the chicken. I was almost going to serve myself a slice when I remembered to take a picture.

Photobucket

     One last note: the directions I read said to let the chicken sit for 15-20 minutes to let the juices settle. I’m not sure if I did or not. I’m not ever sure why juices should be allowed to “settle”.

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Notes on Chicken Soup

Posted on 18th November 2008 in Food

     I am a lover a soups. My favorite would be the classic chicken soup. I make it every couple of weeks or so. It is always different because I make it with what is in my fridge. I made chicken soup two days ago and this time used one whole raw organic free range chicken and the bones of the same kind of chicken that I had roasted the day before. I would have to say it had the best flavor of all my chicken based soups so far. I got the idea from watching an Oprah show. She had one of her favorite chefs on, I can’t remember her name at the moment. On the show, they were making several things a couple of things out of chicken. I remembered the chef mentioning that the best chicken stock is made with roasted chicken bones. So that is what I did. It is true. If you want to make the best chicken soup or stock, use roasted chicken bones.
     On a side note, my husband Rick said that he loves that we use everything when cooking. Bones do not go to waste unless there is not enough bone to make a soup base. I was proud as well. This might sound silly but it makes me feel like I’m living like a woman a hundred or more years ago that let nothing go to waste. Remember Little House on the Prairie? When I was a little girl I used to pretend that I had to make everything by hand. I would pick wheat in the fields around our house and pretend to dry it. Then take the bird food we had and separated out each grain and made my own “flour” by grinding it between stones I found. I felt so romantic.
     That little girl only looks older. I love feeling like a romantic heroine in a story when I cook and make sure that everything has a purpose. As crazy as it sounds, I can hardly wait until we have a home. I will start canning things and stock them away in their Americana Mason jars in my own “cellar”. I may even be lucky enough to have an old enough house that has a real root cellar. They are great fun in the summer.
     Happy cooking to all! Remember, the “real” Americans were not nearly as wasteful as we “modern” Americans. We should take lesson from our past.

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