Made For Us
A newly married 20-something High School English teacher from New Jersey (currently lost in the Midwest) who likes to read, cook, listen to jazz, write, design, & dream of world travel with my graphic designing husband.
I am all about trying to eat/cook healthy, have date nights, and enjoy life on a humble teacher's salary. This is a hodgepodge of recipes, teaching anecdotes, dreams, and budget ideas of a young educator.
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Don’t throw that chicken carcass away!
Instead, after eating as much as you can from the rotisserie from the grocery store (or one your roasted yourself), throw it in a large pot and make your own chicken stock.
You’ll need:
- chicken carcass
- cold water
- onion - 1
- celery - 3 stalks
- carrots - 2 whole or several baby
- herbs - dried or fresh (sage, rosemary, marjoram, herbs provence)
- salt
- pepper
- Put carcass in a large pot. Cover with cold water. Turn on the stove. Add salt, about 1-2 TBS. Add onion, cut in half; you can even leave the skin on. Add celery cut or torn in half. Add carrots cut in half (if whole). Add pepper and herbs. Bring to a boil and let it simmer for at least 2 hours*.
- Taste as you go along. Add herbs, pepper, and salt as needed. After 2 hours, if you are happy with the taste, begin straining all of the solids. Remove the large items (bones and vegetables) with a slotted spoon and discard. Then use an extremely fine mesh strainer to transfer the stock to another bowl.
- Let the broth cool completely and place in the fridge. This will allow the fat to separate completely from the stock. The fat will become a solid on the surface, which you can scoop off hours later (or the next day).
- You can use this stock in anything you’d would have used store bought broth, only it brings SO much more flavor to the party. You can also freeze the stock for later use.
*If you let it continue to simmer for several more hours, you will create an extremely concentrated stock. You should still let it cool to discard the fat, but after, you can pour the thick stock into an empty ice tray, freeze overnight, and then store the cubes in a freezer ziplock bag. You can dilute this thick stock in 1 cup of water and it equals one cup stock.
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How I’m feeling around 7pm this Sunday night after hours of web browsing…
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Roasting a whole chicken isn’t as hard as it seems.
Growing up, I don’t remember my mom ever roasting a whole chicken. Sure, there was a whole turkey on Thanksgiving, but never a whole chicken for a weekend meal. After living on my own (after college) for over three years now, I realize just how expensive it can be to go grocery shopping when you want to cook/make your own meals (for two with leftovers for lunch) from scratch. Seeing a whole chicken for the same price I usually buy chicken breasts or tenders made me want to try my hand at roasting one myself.
If you’re anything like me, the idea of handling a whole headless bird may be a bit too much. Also, if you’re anything like me, you will re-think not being a vegetarian every.single.time you cut extra fat off of it or like I’ve been doing lately spatchcocking it (crazy verb, I know). Spatchcocking just means cutting the back bone out, which makes the chicken lie flat so that the bird gets evenly browned.
Easy, Simple Steps:
- Preheat oven to 400 Degrees
Make a bed for the chicken:
- Cut up your favorite roasting veggies — onions, potato, carrot, celery, green pepper, brussel sprouts, tomato, whatever you like, and fill a 9 x 13” pan.
- Drizzle some olive oil over them and add salt, pepper, & other spices such as herbs provence or rosemary.
Prepare your chicken:
- Remove from the bag it came in and discard bag (you may want to take off jewelry before we get to this point).
- Rinse entire chicken in cool water.
- Dry off very, very well with paper towels (If not spatchcocking).
- I always remove tail (I know, I cringed when I typed that).
- Then remove huge pieces of fat likely hanging around the cavity of the chicken that’s probably had its innards removed already.
- If you’re wanting to spatchcock the bird, you need to “sit the chicken up” with its back facing you and with a very sharp butcher’s knife (I need a better one), cut the bone right out. You will be braking ribs and other smaller bones so be careful when grabbing or you could hurt your finger tips.
- At this point, I re-rinse the inside of the bird and pat dry thoroughly with towels.
- Salt and Pepper the inside of the chicken well.
- Lay out some garlic and lemon slices in the middle of your veggie bed so that they will be right under your chicken.
- Lay the chicken over with the breast facing up.
- Salt, pepper, and season the top of your bird well.
- Cut 3 TBS of butter into thin slices and lay them on the breast, abdomen, and legs of the chicken.
Put in preheated oven.
- If you did not spatchcock your chicken, you may try the precarious task of literally flipping the bird over every twenty minutes (maybe just twice to get the breast back to the top). I found a fork near the neck and a chopstick in the rear help.
- If you did spatchcock your chicken, you can simply turn the pan 180 degrees every 20 minutes.
- Remember to baste your bird as it starts to release it juices. Basting every 20 minutes as you’re turning is just fine.*
- Depending on its size, your chicken should take 15 minutes for every pound (if 400 degrees; if 350 degrees, 20 minutes is better).
- To see if it’s done, cut the meat by the leg/thigh to see if it has cooked completely.
Allow chicken to rest for 10 minutes before cutting into it to insure that it will not dry out.
Serve with pan roasted veggies and rice if desired.
*Want to make it more savory or have much more broth at the end? Whisk 1/2 cup chicken broth with 1/4 cup white wine with a little olive oil and extra seasonings. Drizzle this over the chicken, during two of the turning/flipping points while baking.
Don’t be afraid of handling an entire chicken; you can do it!
