Roasted Chicken
One of the things that I don't do a whole lot and would like to do more is to cook "real" meals. That means a meal like we get when we visit our parents: one with multiple dishes that is served on a plate, usually containing at least one dish that is primarily meat. You see, when we eat at home, we usually cook these single-dish meals that are pretty easy to do... plus maybe throw together a salad (thank goodness for the prepackaged stuff).
Well, since I'm doing things that I've always wanted to do this year, I decided that I'm going to cook a turkey dinner some time. Since cooking a full-on turkey seemed a little excessive at first -- I have no idea which end is up when it comes to poultry, I thought I'd start with a chicken.
First Mistake: I bought a whole frozen chicken from SuperStore. The mistake wasn't buying it frozen -- I had a couple of days before I wanted to cook it so it had an opportunity to thaw (mostly) -- the mistake was that I bought the first one that I found. It was pretty large as chickens go -- about six pounds -- which made everything a little more difficult. Most of the recipes I saw talked about three and four pound chickens.
Second Mistake: I didn't thaw the chicken quite long enough. I thawed it in the refrigerator for two days, which was nearly long enough, but there was still some ice around the outside when I opened it up. I suspect this is why it took a fair bit longer to cook than I expected, almost two hours instead of 90 minutes. (The rule of thumb I saw was 1 hour for a 3 lb chicken, plus 10 minutes per extra pound.)
Third Mistake: I was trying to rub the chicken with butter and herbs (basil), but I hadn't dried the chicken thoroughly after washing it. Bad idea. Most of the butter ended up on my fingers since the chicken was so slippery. Also, I should have used a rack during this process because a lot of the butter ended up on the cutting board I had set the chicken on.
I didn't have a single recipe that I followed, although I did rely heavily on Roast Chicken Made Better, Start to Finish, which seemed to have good advice. I ended up rubbing the bird with dried basil and butter, squeezing a lime over the outside and then stuffing the cavity with the limes, a few sprigs of fresh basil, some onion and mushrooms. I roasted for 20 minutes at 450°F and then for the rest of the time (about an hour and a half) at 375°F. I started the chicken breast down and then turned it over after the initial 20 minutes to match the photo on the web page (and so I could stick the thermometer into the thigh).
The end result was not quite a failure. I finally took the chicken out of the oven because we were starving -- there were a few pink bits so we finished those parts up in the microwave. The legs and thighs were certainly cooked enough -- the leg bone came right off the bird when I tried to separate the thigh.
Carving was a joke too. I know a little more about bird anatomy now than I did before, but I still don't really have a good handle on how to take these things apart. I think I did a passable job, but it wasn't elegant by any stretch of the imagination.
Anyway, with some mashed potatoes and veggies, it was a decent meal with lots of leftovers. Plus we made soup with the carcass. Now, that makes your house smell good.
Next time I'm going to try a smaller bird, hopefully fresh. I'm going to stick with the lime and basil theme, though. It was pretty tasty. Hmm. I'm hungry... leftovers....
Well, since I'm doing things that I've always wanted to do this year, I decided that I'm going to cook a turkey dinner some time. Since cooking a full-on turkey seemed a little excessive at first -- I have no idea which end is up when it comes to poultry, I thought I'd start with a chicken.
First Mistake: I bought a whole frozen chicken from SuperStore. The mistake wasn't buying it frozen -- I had a couple of days before I wanted to cook it so it had an opportunity to thaw (mostly) -- the mistake was that I bought the first one that I found. It was pretty large as chickens go -- about six pounds -- which made everything a little more difficult. Most of the recipes I saw talked about three and four pound chickens.
Second Mistake: I didn't thaw the chicken quite long enough. I thawed it in the refrigerator for two days, which was nearly long enough, but there was still some ice around the outside when I opened it up. I suspect this is why it took a fair bit longer to cook than I expected, almost two hours instead of 90 minutes. (The rule of thumb I saw was 1 hour for a 3 lb chicken, plus 10 minutes per extra pound.)
Third Mistake: I was trying to rub the chicken with butter and herbs (basil), but I hadn't dried the chicken thoroughly after washing it. Bad idea. Most of the butter ended up on my fingers since the chicken was so slippery. Also, I should have used a rack during this process because a lot of the butter ended up on the cutting board I had set the chicken on.
I didn't have a single recipe that I followed, although I did rely heavily on Roast Chicken Made Better, Start to Finish, which seemed to have good advice. I ended up rubbing the bird with dried basil and butter, squeezing a lime over the outside and then stuffing the cavity with the limes, a few sprigs of fresh basil, some onion and mushrooms. I roasted for 20 minutes at 450°F and then for the rest of the time (about an hour and a half) at 375°F. I started the chicken breast down and then turned it over after the initial 20 minutes to match the photo on the web page (and so I could stick the thermometer into the thigh).
The end result was not quite a failure. I finally took the chicken out of the oven because we were starving -- there were a few pink bits so we finished those parts up in the microwave. The legs and thighs were certainly cooked enough -- the leg bone came right off the bird when I tried to separate the thigh.
Carving was a joke too. I know a little more about bird anatomy now than I did before, but I still don't really have a good handle on how to take these things apart. I think I did a passable job, but it wasn't elegant by any stretch of the imagination.
Anyway, with some mashed potatoes and veggies, it was a decent meal with lots of leftovers. Plus we made soup with the carcass. Now, that makes your house smell good.
Next time I'm going to try a smaller bird, hopefully fresh. I'm going to stick with the lime and basil theme, though. It was pretty tasty. Hmm. I'm hungry... leftovers....
posted by Brent at 11:58 AM
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