Sunday, February 14, 2010

Roast Chicken aka Grownup Food

(picture taken hastily because I was hungry)

I made my first roast chicken! I feel like such a grown up!

I was at the store looking at chicken breasts when I saw whole chickens for like 4 bucks. I bought one, and on the way home I was thinking, "I have no idea what to do with this!"

I tried googling what to do, but the information was so overwhelming. I went for the trusted advice of madre. (And Chris' mom, who basically said the same thing)

So. I put on some nitrile gloves to avoid freaking out about cross contamination, and started.

From what I saw on Google, some people rinse the bird, some don't. I opted to rinse.
When I took it out of the bag it was all squished together, and as I started rinsing the wings and legs kinda flopped out a little bit.
At first I started looking for the hole at the top, but then I realized it's supposed to be down by the legs. I couldn't figure out what I was looking at, but then I realized the neck was stuffed in the hole. How odd... Anyway, I removed that and chunked it, and rinsed out the inside. I figured it looked like a chicken should.

I had prepared a 13 x 9 cake pan lined with tin foil, because I don't have a roasting pan. I stuck the bird in that, removed the gloves, and liberally sprayed disinfectant all over the sink.

I sprinkled some thyme, salt, pepper, and garlic powder on top of the bird. Then I kinda rubbed it around (with gloves on), and got some of the seasonings underneath the skin and on to the breast. I felt oddly like a masseuse.

Then I flipped it over, repeated, and flipped it back over, breast side up.

I had half of an onion left over from something, so I just stuck the whole thing inside the hole, along with some watercress I found in the fridge. I dunno why, I just did.

I stuck it in the oven at 325 for a couple hours, until the juices where the leg met the body ran clear. I got kinda paranoid and left it in a little longer, just in case. I'm so scared of getting food poisoning from undercooked meat. I just remembered I have a meat thermometer, and I should have used that. Anyway, it was pretty done.

I took it out and let it sit for about 15 minutes, and when I went to rip the leg off, the meat just fell right off the bones. The skin was nice and crispy, and the meat was just falling off.

After I took all the meat off, I stuck the carcass in a pot. Actually, I just put everything from the roasting pan into a pot and simmered for a couple hours to get chicken broth, which I froze. No more canned crap!

Now I have a couple tupperware containers full of chicken and a nice stock of chicken broth. It was surprisingly easy and super cheap, and I feel awesome having cooked something substantial. Yay!

4 comments:

Ansley said...

Awesome! If you want a real treat, next time throw a half lemon (or any citrus you like) inside the chicken. It'll make everything super super moist! Love lemon and rosemary. Nom nom nom!

Drew said...

I'm so jealous of the broth. That's one of those things I've been wanting to try and make but haven't yet done it.
I actually haven't done a whole bird yet either. I'm baby stepping it with Cornish game hens and those 3 pound breast pieces. :) Isn't it funny how cooking some foods makes you feel like so much of an adult?

Gary M. Clayton said...

This really looks tasty. I think i'll try this bigtime, a whole chicken dish, i'll invite friend over to brag about it..lol

But before anything else, how can you be assured that the chicken is not dry?

Jennifer said...

I dunno, don't overcook it I guess! Or try the lemon idea above.