Posts tagged chicken

Illustration from Joy of Cooking. It depicts “preparing an undrawn bird for roasting” which is not the same as loosening the skin from the meat, but I couldn’t resist including it anyway.

In any relationship, there is one person who is less revolted by the idea of shoving their hand up underneath the skin of a raw chicken. I did not think I was that person, but apparently I find it less objectionable than Dave does. Are you that person in your relationship? Congratulations, you are now the person who stuffs seasonings into pockets in the chicken skin. This is part of your life now. You may add it to your resume.

I bring this up because stuffing seasonings under the skin of chicken allows the skin to crisp better and infuses the meat with more flavor than just coating the skin. It’s incredibly effective.

And I would highly recommend trying it with this recipe from A Bird in the Oven and Then Some by Mindy Fox, which I totally bastardized when I was trying to put together dinner without resorting to lemon mustard chicken AGAIN but was still revelatory.

Roast Chicken with Saffron, Ginger, and Golden Raisins

• 1 whole chicken (I used chicken legs I think)
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 orange (I did not have an orange, I’m sure it’s better with the orange)
• 1/4 cup golden raisins, soaked in boiling water to cover for 1 minute and drained (read also, 1/4 cup currants, straight from the little plastic container)
• 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
• 3 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon saffron threads
• 1/ 2 teaspoon ground coriander
• flakey coarse sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup dry white wine (which I totally forgot about and only just realized was part of the recipe now, re-reading)

Preheat oven to 425.

Prepare the seasoning: Cut the butter up into pieces and put in a bowl. Zest the orange into the bowl. Add the raisins, ginger, garlic, saffron, and coriander. Mix together. My butter was pretty cold, so I used one of those pastry cutter dealies to mix things together.

Pull of excess fat around the cavities of the chicken and discard. From the edge of the cavity, wriggle your fingers up under the skin of the chicken and loosen the skin from the meat. You may have to get in here with some kitchen shears or a knife if you have a hard time getting around the membranes that attach the skin to the meat. This is basically terrible, but you get more used to it the more you do it.

Using your hands, work the butter into the spaces between the chicken skin and meat. You can rub your hand over the outside of the skin to smooth the mixture out and push it farther down between the skin and meat.

Season with salt and pepper.

What I did: I put the chicken thighs on a roasting pan with some cut up root vegetables and cooked the whole thing until done.

The recipe directions: Roast for 15 minutes, then pour the wine over the chicken, reduce the heat to 350, and continue to roast, basting every 15 minutes until the juices run clear when the thigh is pierced with a fork, or an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh reads 165. Transfer the chicken to a cutting board and let rest for 5 minutes, then carve.

This is so wonderfully good, even my bastardized version.

Last week I was so disappointed by roast chicken, but lo! how things have changed!

Every year at Christmas, I accidentally end up with extra gifts. Mostly I get carried away with how wonderful this thing or another would be for someone but then when push comes to shove not be totally clear who “someone” is (it is me). This year, I ended up with the cookbook A Bird in the Oven and Then Some by Mindy Fox. In theory I bought it as a gift, but it turns out I bought it for me. The premise is ridiculous: a whole book about roast chicken. However, there’s a wide range of recipes and they looked wonderful and the paper is nice and thick and the fonts are all really nice.

I made the parsnip soup from the book a little while back, which was delicious, and then last night I made the recipe for Roast Chicken with Green Olives, Fennel Seeds, and Thyme. I feel vindicated in my purchase.

For the roast chicken, basically you chop up 1 cup chopped green olives, 2 1/2 tablespoons fresh thyme, 1 garlic clove (read: two), the zest of two lemons, and 1 3/4 teaspoons fennel seeds and stuff it all under the skin of a chicken. Then you roast the chicken.

I used the roast chicken recipe I normally use for the actual cooking.

Here’s a tip regarding stuffing things under chicken skin: cookbooks like to tell you that you can just loosen the skin with your fingers. That is total bullshit. Skin is attached to the meat. That’s how skin works. I find it easier if I can get it there with a knife or kitchen shears and just snip the membranes (are they membranes? I don’t know) that attach the skin to the meat. Then you can loosen with your fingers.

It would also be good to note whether you have any small cuts on your hands before doing this, because stuffing olive, garlic, and lemon mixtures into tight spaces with your hands is not super comfortable if you have small cuts on there.

Those whole thing is more of a hassle than just roasting a chicken, but it’s delicious and I am sick of plain roasted chicken by now. It would be perfect for a casual dinner party.

So…I made this the other night. I used regular spaghetti because that’s what I had and regular chicken breasts that I deboned and skinned myself because I think purchasing chicken cutlets is RIDICULOUS.

Beyond that, it was amazing.

I mean, god, dinner can be hard. It happens every day! After work! You have to work and then you have to cook dinner. And you’re supposed to eat healthy things, too. I have a few easy dinner fall-backs, but they tend to involve a lot of cream (for instance, and also).

This, though, man, this is so good and it doesn’t even involve cream. It has so much flavor. It is not hard to make.

Bravo, Martha Stewart.*

* Or, rather, chefs and food people who work for Martha Stewart.

I have come to believe that if you eat chicken regularly, knowing how to break down a chicken is maybe one of the most valuable cooking skills you could have.* You just get so much more when you buy the whole chicken. Case in point:

Our dog occasionally gets some intestinal distress (don’t we all?), and according to our vet, if your dog gets diarrhea, you should feed them chicken and rice and most of the time that will clear everything up. Basically, you poach some skinless, boneless chicken (you don’t want fat here) and then mix it up with rice. And you know, it really works.  I’m going to be away for a bit next week, so I’m making up a batch of chicken and rice to freeze in case things go awry again.

Do you all know how much boneless, skinless chicken breasts cost a pound? Something like $6. That’s crazy talk. I’m not spending $6 a pound on meat for dog food.

On the other hand, a whole chicken costs something like $2 - $3 a pound. If you buy yourself a whole chicken, you can get your chicken breasts for the dog food, plus legs and wings for chili and honey chicken legs for dinner, plus a carcass that can be made into stock, all for $10 or so. With all that money you saved, you can buy yourself a small- to medium-sized hunk of gruyere.** You win!

Generally I keep the chicken neck for stock, but have sort of been at a loss as to what to do with the remaining giblets. Not today, though. Today I stood at my kitchen counter with my baggie of assorted chicken bits and decided, I’m going to do something with these chicken livers. I don’t care if it’s eating them myself, or giving them to the dog, but they are not getting thrown away.

I would have added them to the dog food, except they’re really rich, which kind of defeats the whole point of bland dog food.

So I wiped out the skillet I had used to poach the chicken breasts, added half a pat of butter, then some chopped shallots which I cooked until they were translucent, then added the livers and cooked until they were browned. It was crazy delicious. And I ate them all before Dave got home because he finds chicken livers revolting.

This is the kind of excitement you get when you live with me. Let me tell you, it is awesome.

* Behind knowing how to chop up an onion which is REALLY IMPORTANT. Here is an illustrated tutorial. If you do not know how to do this, you must go to read this tutorial right now. I cannot say that strongly enough.

** What I did.

1. Chicken thighs with marmalade are delicious.  Line a baking sheet with foil, then pop the chicken thighs or legs on there, salt and pepper and stick in the oven at 400 or so.  After 10 - 15 minutes, spread some marmalade over the chicken thighs.  Continue to cook until chicken is done.  You can finish with 2 - 4 minutes in the broiler. 

I’m not sure this is exactly life-changing, but I do have a large amount of marmalade at home and I wouldn’t say no to a two-ingredient dinner.*

I have spoken the gospel of chicken legs before, but just in case you missed it: chicken legs are fantastic.  They’re more flavorful and less dry than chicken breasts, and they’re generally cheaper, too.

Save the bones in a baggie in your freezer for making stock later.

2. Sausages cooked in honey and mustard are also delicious.  Theoretically, you’d bake the sausages, covered with a mix of approximately half honey and half mustard, in the oven, again on a baking sheet lined with foil at approx. 400.  If you’ve purchased brats, you could stick everything in a skillet on relatively high heat to warm and make the honey mustard more glaze-like.  Obviously these are to be eaten with homemade sauerkraut.

* Note: this is not really a two-ingredient dinner, unless you’re eating chicken and nothing else for dinner.  Now, I’m not above this, it’s just not a great way to feel particularly healthy. 

Hello Readers! Posting will probably be light for the next few days as a result of bizarre and freakish arm swelling that requires my arm to be elevated (this sounds like something I made up, but is, in fact, not. My elbow made a reappearance today, though, so I’m feeling pretty positive about things). Good thing I had a few posts already written and stashed away for just such a situation.

I’ve been meaning to post this for a while, because honestly, I’ve been eating it practically weekly for a few months now.  Sometimes you get on recipe kicks.  And I am seriously on this one. 

Behold, the chicken, roasted pepper, chickpea and preserved lemon salad.  In leftover form, since I didn’t have my act together to take a picture of it the day of.  (This makes you miss the professionalism of smitten kitchen already, no?  Imagine if I had photos like that!  I would be unstoppable [freakish arm swelling not withstanding]!  Bwa ha ha!)

Here’s why the salad so good, apart from being delicious:

1. It’s pretty un-fussy and straightforward to make. 

2. It makes a lot of food, which is nice for guests or for leftovers.

3. The leftovers save really well (see above).

4. Because it’s chicken and chickpeas, it’s super filling and satisfying.

5. Because it involves bell peppers, I think that counts as a vegetable and I can make just one thing for dinner.  I love when I can make just one thing and it counts as a respectable dinner.

6. The degree of healthiness is pretty good given the degree of deliciousness.

It’s from Diana Henry’s Pure Simple Cooking, which I’ve mentioned before and continues to be a great regular dinner cookbook, despite the dopey name.*  The one caveat is that it requires preserved lemons.  The Whole Foods in Portland carries them in their olive/tapenade/grated cheeses section.  Otherwise, you might find them in a cheese shop.  I think you can also make them pretty easily, but it takes a while (as one might expect from anything with “preserved” in its name).

Warm Chicken, Roasted Pepper, Chickpea, and Preserved Lemon Salad

• 2 - 3 red bell peppers (depending on size), halved, with stems and seeds removed
• 2 bone-in skin-on chicken breasts**
• olive oil
• salt & pepper
• chickpeas (maybe 2 cups)***
• 1 preserved lemon, insides scooped out and rind cut into slivers

dressing

• 3 cloves garlic
• 3 1/2 Tablespoons pine nuts
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 6 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• salt & pepper

1.  Preheat oven to 375.  Lay the peppers in a roasting pan with the chicken breasts (skin side down for peppers, skin side up for chicken).  Drizzle with olive oil (mostly just the peppers), and season with salt and pepper.  Roast for about 35 minutes, or until the chicken is done and the peppers are soft and slightly charred.

2.  For the dressing, mix the garlic, pine nuts, and lemon juice in a food processor, and, with the motor running, pour in the oil.  Taste and adjust seasoning.

3. When the peppers and chicken are cooked, let them cool slightly and then cut the pepper into strips and pull the chicken apart into chunks (or slice it, whatever).  You probably want to remove the skin here so it doesn’t get cold and soggy.

4.  Either toss the ingredients together or arrange them on a platter.  If I go the arranging route, I lay down a bed of chickpeas, add the peppers and chicken, then the lemon and parsley, then pour the dressing over it all.  It may seem like too much dressing, but it’s not.

* The way the name of this recipe just rolls of the tongue suggests that Ms. Henry may have a way with food but not so much with naming.

** Recipe calls for grilling 4 skinless chicken breast fillets.  I think this is silly because grilling skinless, boneless, potentially dry things seems like maybe not an awesome idea and also because it requires a whole extra step that is not really required.

*** The recipe calls for a 14 oz. can of chickpeas, which works and is fine.  But you can also make them yourself in big batches ahead of time and freeze them.  This is what I do:

1. Buy a lot of dried chickpeas.  It’s ridiculous to do this with only enough for one recipe. 
2. Rinse them, check them over for rocks and other random beans that may have slipped in, and stick them in a large pot, covered with water by 2” or so.  Bring to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes. 
3. Let sit for at least an hour but maybe more.  However long you feel like, basically. Then drain. 
4. Fill the pot up with water again to cover by 2”. Bring to boil.  Turn heat down to simmer and simmer for 1 - 2 hours, possibly more depending on how old your chickpeas are and probably some other factors that I don’t fully understand. 
5. Drain.

I try to pick out the translucent chickpea shells/peels that float around in the water like little chickpea ghosts.  But I don’t think that matters.  Once they’re cooled, I put them in ziplock bags, suck the air out, and freeze them.  Mark Bittman recommends freezing them with the liquid, but I don’t do that.  No, I don’t know why.