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January 22, 2007
Sunday Dinner
We rarely cook meat at home. First, I was a vegetarian for a year or so, primarily for environmental reasons. I wanted to become more conscious of how much meat I regularly ate, and how much of a strain that put on natural resources (an exorbitant amount of energy and water goes into raising an animal, and American practices of raising meat en masse are disturbing). As expected, the experiment was an eye opener, and D and I have been much more conscious of our eating habits since.
When I finally returned to eating meat, we didn't introduce it back into the kitchen right away. Instead, it remained a special-occasion item. Inevitably, though, I became intrigued by the many possibilities of pork on a grill, and then pork in the oven, or bacon in or wrapped around anything, and now meat (of the sustainable, free range variety) is making an appearance in our refrigerator more often.
I still haven't made many classic dishes -- meatloaf, stew, steak, meat lasagna, meatballs, etc. -- and a roasted chicken is one of them. A few months back, a friend said something about how easy it was to roast a chicken -- just put a half a lemon in the cavity, rub salt and pepper and olive oil or butter on the outside, and stick it in the oven. It did sound easy, but if I was going to roast a chicken, I wanted it to be a bit more exciting. When I saw this lovely-looking recipe on Simply Recipes (a web site I love and trust), I decided to give it a try. (My mother also assured me that I really couldn't ruin a roasted chicken).
There's something festive about roasting an entire bird. There are various awkward limbs, innards, and wings to deal with, and you might come across a remnant of a feather. If you don't regularly roast chickens, you'll be reminded of Thanksgiving. You'll also be reminded in the process of handling the beast that an animal has lived its entire life to become a meal. For you.
I enjoyed roasting and eating this chicken so much more than I've enjoyed other recent cooking projects. While cleaning the chicken, I discovered the neck (great for gravy and stock!) and livers inside the cavity. I LOVE chicken livers, so I gleefully threw them in the skillet with some butter and onions and had a damned fine snack. (Despite loving to eat chicken livers, cooking them was also a first for me, though I grew up in a liver-loving household). Derek did NOT enjoy the miniscule, teeny tiny piece of liver I forced him to eat.
True to form, I couldn't follow the recipe exactly as it was written. Instead of stuffing the chicken with lemon and thyme (such a waste!), I made a proper batch of stuffing out of celery, cubed bread, marjoram (& sage & thyme), and onions sauteed in lots of butter. Otherwise, I did what Elise said: rub bird with salt & pepper and olive oil, place in cast iron pan and surround with carrots, garlic cloves, and a cup of chicken broth, bake for 1 1/4 hour. Plus, I remembered toward the end that Mom had (in her infinite wisdom, knowing that I was nearing the chicken-roasting phase of my cooking education) given me a fancy meat thermometer for Christmas. I dug it out, stuck it in, and it promptly announced (it has a voice feature), that my chicken would be done, "in eight minutes." It even counted down from ten toward the end, and reminded me to baste the bird (the recipe calls for regular basting).
The chicken tasted fabulous. The carrots were even better -- really sweet and fortified with the flavor of the chicken broth and not a small amount of chicken fat. I made no-knead bread alongside the chicken and the pair made for a decadent Sunday dinner. Tonight, I embellished the leftovers with gravy and currant jelly.
Posted by csageday at January 22, 2007 10:32 PM
Comments
Now I'm jealous. Looks like you got another Le Creuset pot/pan. Probably why my roasted birds don't look or taste quite as you describe. It's got to be the pot!
Posted by: Mom at January 23, 2007 02:44 PM
Your chicken looks fabulous! I love how you captured the cooking method in the cast iron pan. Regarding stuffing, stuffing a bird will often increase the overall cooking time. If we are doing a stuffing we'll usually make a stock from the giblets and use that to flavor a stuffing cooked on the stove. Putting in a lemon and some thyme in infuses the bird with flavor from the inside. So there is some method to the madness. ;-)
Posted by: Elise at January 23, 2007 08:20 PM
Thanks, Elise. I will certainly try lemon and thyme next time (I couldn't resist stuffing the chicken since it was my first time roasting one and I've always wanted to try that). Making the stuffing on the stove makes sense, too -- thanks for the tip.
Posted by: Cindy at January 24, 2007 10:57 PM