More chicken
Chicken was on sale again, so I roasted two 1.7kg broilers filled with a few cloves of garlic and half a lemon and drizzled grape seed oil on the skin before cooking (I will be using it for cooking later so it seemed appropriate not to mix oil flavours but olive or canola is just fine).
FYI when you pull out the chicken to test the temperature, the lemon juices spit a lot in the pan drippings so there was some smoke when I pulled them out. It set off the alarm, but because its winter opening the windows didn’t help much. Still, they were perfectly done after 1 hour, 40 minutes (although the one in my black roasting pan cooked a bit faster so I left the other one in for another 10 minutes at 350F). Honestly, the skin was like a crispy dessert. If I didn’t know it was bad for me, I would have eaten the whole thing!
The meat went into dinners and the bones and skin I used with a few bay leaves, black and white pepper corns and cauliflower root/core to make a rich chicken stock that I skimmed the next day, once cooled for a low fat, sodium free stock. One batch I cooked directly in the roasting pan with 3 quarts of water and baked for 45 minutes at 350F; the other batch I put in a stock pot to cook with the lemon and a sprig of rosemary. I was shocked by the difference in colour. The dark gravy-like stock I jarred on Sunday in the pressure canner and the lighter batch (from the stock pot) I made into chicken noodle soup.
My parents were coming for dinner before we all headed off to a costume party to celebrate our friend’s 4th anniversary of turning 50 (she is NOT 54, incase you were curious). I made Butter Chicken with a side of Vegetable Korma, Basmati Rice and Naan, with almond Besan (tastes like butterscotch fudge) for dessert. They brought a gewurztraminer wine. Recipes and reviews to follow!
