Roast Chicken with Root Veggies

This meal is one of my favorites - it will impress your guests to no end, and takes almost no effort (I just finished writing the post - 'no effort' is a lie, but 'less effort than you think' might be true...). Before you start thinking "it looks like mini-Thanksgiving!" let me reassure you, chicken is much easier to cook than a Thanksgiving bird - namely because of the size. It doesn't take nearly as long to prep or bake and is much less cumbersome.

So - let's get started! Before we do, let me explain one thing about this Year of Cooking - I think one reason a lot of people don't like to cook is not because they don't like to eat, not because it takes too much time, and not because they can't find or follow a recipe. I think people don't like to cook largely because it takes them so much time, and always creates such a mess. I hate that about cooking, too! Subsequently, throughout this series, I'll give tips for quicker, neater cooking - being a good cook is not just about the dish you produce, it's also about the way you run your kitchen. A well run kitchen makes cooking enjoyable! Immensely!

Tip for quick cooking - get all of your ingredients gathered before you start cooking. More importantly, and yes seriously, more importantly - start with a clean kitchen. Mess on top of mess adds to stress, accidents, and slow-downs when that perfect spoon is still dirty from yesterday. And, if you feel so inclined, try to clean as you go - dirty dishes straight in the sink, ingredients put away as they are used, etc - it makes the clean up easier, and your cooking process less cluttered. At least - that's what I've found.

A couple pre-cooking tips specific for this recipe:
* take the chicken out of the fridge a couple hours before you're ready to put it in the oven, (no more than 2hrs before - poultry diseases are nothing to mess around with). An hour or two will help the meat come to room temperature, which will make it more pleasant to work with, and reduce cooking time.
* chop the potatoes, carrots, onions, and garlic anytime within 12 hours before you're ready to cook. If it's going to be more than 30 min before you actually put the dish together, submerge the chopped veggies in water (if more than an hour, put them in the fridge). They'll stay fresh, and chopping ahead of time will dramatically reduce your work later (aka - make this recipe attainable for those of you who work or have toddlers) - as it's really the most time consuming bit of the prep.
*Prep your area prior to working with the chicken. Raw chicken is no child's toy, so make sure you have out all of the aforementioned gear and ingredients before you start cutting.

note - size of veggies at approx 1 inch

Roast Chicken with Root Veggies

1 med size chicken, whole including giblets (the innards - yuck!)

3 large potatoes (any kind is fine, I used Russet because they're cheaper - red, yellow, or yukon would also be perfect. Fingerling potatoes would be A+ for presentation, taste great, and minimize your cook time) 

4 med size carrots (again, baby carrots would be fine, and no chopping required) 

1/2 large onion 

4-6 cloves fresh garlic

salt (approx 3Tbs) 

olive oil (approx 4Tbs) 

rosemary (optional)

Gear needed
* Stove-top/Oven-proof pan with lid - If you don't have one, a skillet and a 9x13 baking dish will work just fine. But if you have a stainless steel stock pot, or a Dutch oven - now is your time!
* Knife
* Plate/small bowl for giblets/excess chicken (to save for making stock later)
* Large plate for prepping chicken

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Instructions:

Remove the chicken from it's packaging. Remove the giblets and any large excess portions of fat from the chicken, set aside. Note - depending on what kind of chicken you buy, the giblets may be nicely pre-packaged in a separate little bag, or alternatively, may be inside the chest cavity of the chicken. If this is the case, remove the giblets by reaching inside the back-end of the chicken. If your chicken has any residual feathers or dirt (which it shouldn't, but occasionally happens) just rinse the whole thing off under the tap for a minute - not to worry! 

 Set the chicken on a large plate and begin pulling the skin back from the meat - gently. The goal is to create space between the skin and the meat but do not remove the skin from the chicken completely. You don't need the skin sagging away from the meat, just open enough to slide in some garlic gloves, salt, and if you have it on hand - rosemary.

Make sure you separate the skin from the meat on both sides of the chicken, and around the wings and legs as much as possible. Once the skin is separated, but not removed, slide some sliced garlic, salt, and any other herbs of your choice under the skin. You don't want to stuff the area between the skin and the meat - just put some little bits of flavor inside.

 

Why are we doing this? Well, because it's delicious. The skin helps hold in the natural moisture of the meat (dried out chicken is terrible), and adds a nice little bit of extra flavor because of the amount of fat in the skin. The garlic, salt, and other herbs of your choice will help infuse the meat with a nice flavor - but because we didn't put in too much, won't overpower it.

Ok - if you made it this far and you're still interested in doing this meal - stop for a minute. Pat yourself on the back, go pour yourself a glass of wine (even if it's only 3pm) - you're an amazing cook. Anyone who's willing to do this, is an amazing cook. Even if you ruin it your first try :)

If you're not willing to do this, and you're still reading - go pour yourself a glass of wine, drink it. Pour yourself another. Now read this again, and try!! You can do it, and if you fail on the skin separating bit, you can still toss the chicken in the oven with the veggies for a couple hours and create an amazing meal!

Alright - back to the recipe.

So pretty!

Take some of your chopped root veggies (and any remaining garlic), and put them inside the cavity of the chicken. It doesn't need to be stuffed, but full - these will also help create a wonderful sweet flavor in your chicken. Extra onion inside the chicken is a great idea.

Put 1-2 Tbs of olive oil in the bottom of your stockpot and pre-heat on the stove top. Place the chicken directly in the pot and allow the bottom side to brown for approx 30seconds. Using your hands (as the chicken shouldn't be too hot yet), grab the legs of the chicken and gently pull the chicken up from the pot, turn over, and place back in the pot in order to brown the other side. Again, brown for about 30 seconds.

Un-browned side

After the flip - browned.

Note 1 - if you are doing this without a stove-top/oven friendly pot, brown the chicken in a skillet, then transfer to your baking dish. Nothing else is different.

Note 2 - if the above step sounds too hard, skip it. Put the olive oil in the bottom of the pot, pour in the veggies, and plop the chicken on top. Drizzle it all with a little bit of extra olive oil, salt, and (if you have it) fresh ground black pepper. Continue with the below directions.

Turn off the heat, using a long wooden spoon (or utensil of your choice) slightly lift the chicken from the pot and put some of the root veggies underneath. Let the chicken rest on top of the root veggies, and pour any remaining veggies over the chicken.

Once your chicken and veggies are all in the stock pot, cover the pot tightly (preferably with a lid, though if you don't have a lid, foil will suffice - be generous)

Place the pot/Dutch oven/baking dish in the oven (towards the middle, if possible) and let cook for approx 2 hours (depending on the size of your bird, it may be closer to 1 1/2 hours).

 

While I waited, we made some of those delicious chocolate chip oatmeal cookies I promised to make this week. Recipe here. Then we ate some. A lot. Yum. Only complaint on this recipe - dough is so stiff!!! Next time, I may melt the butter, or dramatically soften it. (note - I made them again and melted the better. Totally different cookie. Much chewier, much less crunchy. Still delicious.) Also - 1hr 5min time includes all the baking time - which isn't really active prep time, in my opinion...

Anyway - while you're eating cookies...Check the chicken every 30 min or so, being sure there is some liquid in the bottom and nothing is burning. The chicken and veggies (combined with the olive oil) should produce enough liquid on their own. However, if your pot looks really dry on the bottom, add 1/2 c water, recover tightly, and check again in 15 min.

After about an hour - hour and a half, check to see if the chicken is done. You can either use a meat thermometer inserted into the breast (poultry is done at 180F, though some say 160F), or you can just use a paring knife to cut into the breast and check the color of the meat. You want white meat, not pink, but some juices are fine - great, actually.

If your chicken isn't as brown on top as you'd like it to be, uncover it, and cook again for 5-10 min - that should the trick, and not dry out your chicken.

It's finished!!!

Once the chicken is done, remove the pot from the oven and let cool for a few minutes. Using a meat fork (or salad fork) and some other sturdy utensil, lift the chicken from the pot and place on a platter - carefully. Pour the veggies around it, and viola - you're a professional chef!

If you like - garnish with some fresh rosemary and fresh ground pepper.

Enjoy with white wine (if you like white wine - I much prefer red), artisan bread (meaning, not sandwich bread), and side salad. We're having Rosemary Bread (bought at the store) and spinach salad (which I'll do a recipe for later).

Now, even though this is incredibly long - this is important as a last note.

Please, please read the upcoming entry on Chicken Stock before you clean up from this meal. You can absolutely use every single bit of that chicken you bought, and fairly effortlessly. If you've made it this far, you owe it to yourself (and that chicken) to do a little bit more work and make the most delicious chicken stock you've ever made.

When we do Roast Red Pepper and Tomato Risotto with Spicy Sausage next week, you'll be glad you did. The Chicken Stock made from this chicken absolutely makes it.

Alright - happy eating and impressing!

Ps - if you wanted a smaller version of this, or an individually plate-able dinner, try this same recipe but with cornish game hens. I've never done it, but the results would be fabulous. Definitely use fingerling potatoes, baby carrots, and pearl onions if you do.

Chocolate Fruit Cups

Here's my little disclaimer - if you are an impatient cook, or easily disappointed in yourself as a vicarious response to any of your culinary attempts failing - don't try this :) When you're a bit more patient, and more flexible with yourself - then try this.

These little fruit cups are amazing for bridal showers, baby showers, and lingerie parties - ladies love them! And appreciate their prettiness - don't serve these at a Super Bowl party or World Cup final.

I'm sorry I don't have more pictures - hopefully my instructions are clear enough, and next time I make them, I promise to take better pictures and add them to this recipe.

Chocolate Fruit Cups:
1 bag chocolate chips
2 Tbs butter
4 c of assorted fruit
muffin tin
paper muffin cup liners (silicon would also work amazingly well, I would think - though I haven't tried it).

Using a double boiler, or a microwave, melt the chocolate chips and butter. The key to this is to stir frequently, and don't let your chocolate over-heat. If it overheats, it separates and turns into an unusable (and unsavory) mess. You can actually remove the chocolate from the heat (or microwave) when there are still some small pieces of chocolate left - the heat from the already melted chocolate will finish the job. Stir until your chocolate is smooth.

Before you begin the next step - make sure your chocolate isn't too runny. If it is too runny, let it sit for a few minutes. You want it to be the consistency of a runny hummus - sounds delicious, huh? I couldn't think of a better example, sorry.

Using a pastry brush (or I used a teaspoon because I didn't have a pastry brush), put approx 1 Tbs of chocolate in a muffin cup, and gently spread around the bottom of the cup and up the sides until your chocolate is evenly distributed. You'll probably have to pick up the muffin cup and delicately turn it as you spread the chocolate evenly. The main goal is to have your chocolate evenly distributed - you don't want it to be so thick it's difficult to eat, but you also want it to be thick enough it can hold it's shape. See the finished picture if you want to double check suggested thickness.

Once your chocolate is evenly spread in the muffin cup, place the muffin cup inside a muffin tin. Repeat until you've used all of your chocolate. Place the muffin tins, full of pretty little chocolate muffin cups, in the refrigerator for about 2 hours - or until the chocolate is hard.

Remove from fridge and try to take a chocolate cup out of the tin. If it sticks you can either wait for your muffin tin to warm to room temperature, or use a 9x13 with warm water and lightly dip the bottom of your muffin tin in the water - essentially offering a quick shot of heat to the muffin tin, which will release the muffin cups. Very carefully, and being sure not to grip the chocolate too tightly (it will melt in your fingers), begin peeling back the muffin cup. Some muffin cups will almost pop right off, other needs a bit of persuading. Just have patience, peeling the cup back until you have a pretty little chocolate cup!

Once you've finished, put your undressed little chocolate cups back in the fridge for about 20 minutes to let them set. They can stay in the fridge for a few days if they are in a sealed container.

Immediately before serving, fill each cup with approx 1/2 c fresh berries. Serve with pride :)

Let me know how this works for you, and don't be discouraged if it takes a few times - these were my 3rd time making this recipe! I've done this recipe both with and without the butter - the butter makes the chocolate a bit smoother, and potentially the muffin cups a bit easier to pull off...but it's 2 more Tbs of butter. Then again, we're talking about chocolate cups - we probably aren't worried about 2Tbs of butter :) Good luck!!

Fudgy Brownies

 Here’s my first warning – these are not in any way, shape, or form diet brownies, healthy brownies, or “your doctor recommended you have one a day” brownies. These are fudgy, yummy, gooey, stick-straight-to your-thighs brownies – and I don’t think there is really any other type worth eating.

Bit of advice before you start this recipe – don’t think about substituting healthier ingredients if you want the same gooey result…these are truly an indulgent brownie…aren’t you excited?!?

Fudgy Brownies Recipe

¼ c shortening (Crisco is great, and by great, I mean awful – which for this purpose makes it great)

¾ c margarine

¾ c unsweetened cocoa

2 c sugar (raw sugar is actually better – in the US, I would actually encourage you to even mix 1 c white sugar with 1 c brown sugar, since most brown sugar in the US is fairly refined)

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 ½ c flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 c chopped nuts (optional, and I would recommend walnuts)

Preheat your oven to 375F.

In a small pot, melt the shortening and margarine. In a separate bowl, combine the cocoa, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Add the melted margarine & shortening – it will be a bit difficult to mix due to the viscosity of the egg mixture and the greasiness (yes, greasiness) of the margarine/shortening mixture. Continue with gentle persistence (you could apply that phrase to various situations in life, actually….I’ll leave application up to you).

Once the shortening/margarine is combined with the sugar mixture, add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Now, many (ok almost all) baking recipes recommend that you combine the flour, salt, baking whatever in a separate bowl THEN add it to your wet ingredients. This is purely so you don’t get globs of salt or baking soda in your finished product. I don’t like to do dishes (unless I have someone fun to do them with, and my children aren’t pulling on my legs the whole time) so I add the flour to the wet ingredients, DON’T MIX, then put the baking whatever and salt on top of the flour & do a little ‘top mix’, if you know what I mean. After the salt & baking soda/powder is mixed in with the flour, I mix together the wet and dry ingredients. So….do that for this recipe.

Once your batter is mixed up, you can add walnuts if you like, and then…eat a bit of it.  Go ahead, it’s ok, you won’t get sick. Here’s the ish on salmonella: (disclaimer – please do your own research, as I hold no responsibility for anyone getting sick from eating raw batter.) Salmonella is an intestinal disease, and is transmitted via the fecal-oral routine (I did not come up with that name, by the way, and feel a bit uncomfortable writing it here…we’re all adults, though, you get the point). Salmonella is found on the outside of eggs, on the shell, not inside (unless of course the shell has been compromised prior to use , in which case you shouldn’t use that egg anyway). If your eggs are clean prior to use, there shouldn’t be any salmonella transmitted to your batter (I wash mine in light bleach water for 10 minutes when I first buy them…I also live in Kenya, so the eggs come a bit more dirty than they do in the US). So, go for it, eat some batter…but again, do your own research/recognize I’m not a salmonella specialist, but have just done some independent research because I LOVE eating batter…

Another note about eggs – if they have never been refrigerated, they don’t have to be. Most eggs in the US are sold from a refrigerator, so you need to keep them in your fridge. BUT, if you can find them unrefrigerated, you can keep them unrefrigerated for several weeks. In Kenya, the eggs are sold on the shelf in the grocery store, and are stored in my pantry (after being washed of course).

Okay, sorry for the egg tangent. Back to the brownies. Pour your brownie batter into a greased 9x13 pan and place in the oven. Let them bake for approximately 30 min. I say approximately because I encourage you to bake your brownies to your own gooey preference. Keep in mind the brownies will continue to cook after you take them out of the oven, and will firm up more as they cool. I find the best brownies are ones that are almost impossible to scoop out of the pan when they first come out of the oven, due to being so soft.

You can eat immediately, but you’ll probably need a fork and a napkin or you can let cool for a bit until the brownies have firmed up a bit.

A couple warnings:

If you use too much flour, this recipe ends up being quite cakey, and not nearly as good. I actually recommend, especially in the US, using  about ¼ c LESS flour. Also, if you use butter and oil, all oil, orange juice, or some other healthier substitute for the fatty ingredients, your brownies will not turn out like the original recipe. Feel free to experiment, and let me know if you come up with a deliciously healthy substitute. I’m all for healthy eating, but do believe some food items have no hope of being healthy and should just be enjoyed as a moment of indulgence.

Enjoy!!!