I've been a bad blogger. I have been horrible about posting lately, but I haven't been cooking much either. I've either been unmotivated, or like with my apple stuff, forgetting to take pictures to blog about it. I did make fabulous apple butter and apple pear sauce, but forgot to take pictures!
Anyway, at a forum I belong to, there was a thread a long time ago about Rubber Chicken. The idea is to make the chicken stretch to as many meals as possible. The thread was revived a few days ago and today I decided to do a Rubber Chicken challenge. The biggest part of this challenge won't be to think of a variety of ways to use the chicken, I already have ideas thanks to that thread, but to make sure my human garbage disposal boyfriend feels full at the end of the meal without needing to eat a lot of meat. With today's economy, I'm sure a lot of people can sympathize.
I didn't decide to blog about this until we were sitting down to eat, so I cheated and used boxed scalloped potatoes. If I'd planned to blog, I would have made them from scratch. Oh, well. That's not the point of this challenge.
I am also not going to post the recipe for the stuffing. It's a family favorite and although they would probably not mind me posting the recipe, I think that even in this time of sharing information and recipes, some things should still be kept in the family. I will tell you that it involves sitting over a bowl, picking white bread (preferably stuffing bread), onions, poultry seasoning, and butter.
I started off with a 6.75lb chicken. I made a mirepoix with carrots, onions, and celery flakes (yes, I know it should be real celery, but we're trying to economize and I didn't want to have to buy any of this except the bread because we eat wheat but I like white for the stuffing, and the chicken itself). I cooked it low and slow in the oven at 325°F for 3 hours. I am a person who loves the flavor the stuffing gets from being inside the chicken. If you don't stuff the chicken, it won't take as long to cook. I always cook my poultry upside down for most of the time. It makes the breast meat so moist and juicy!
Rubber Chicken Meal #1:
Roast Chicken
Stuffing
Scalloped Potatoes
Carrots
Gravy
Rubber Roast Chicken
1 6.75lb chicken
mixed herbs
tarragon
rubbed sage
savory
ground black pepper
kosher salt
- Remove giblets. Rinse chicken and pat dry with paper towels.
- Stuff with stuffing.
- Sprinkle herbs evenly over both sides of the chicken.
- In the bottom of the roasting pan, place in the mirepoix. Put the chicken on top of the mirepoix, upside down.
- Cover the chicken with aluminum foil.
- Cook for 2 hours. Remove foil and turn chicken over. Cook for remaining hour.
- Allow chicken to stand for a a few minutes then carve.
|