Let’s cook!

Herb Crusted Whole Roasted Chicken

1 Whole Roasting Chicken 6 – 8 lbs

3 tablespoons Canola oil

2 cups Pinot Grigio

1 lemon, half and then slices for the other half

4 cloves garlic, smashed

1 medium onion, quartered

handful fresh rosemary

handful fresh sage

handful fresh thyme

2 sticks of carrots, chopped

1 celeary stalk, chopped

Stuff the inside of the chicken with onion, chopped garlic, and lemon half.

Place dutch oven over medium heat add 1 tablespoon of oil. Place the chicken in and lightly brown.

Remove the chicken add carrots and celery to the pot.

Cook on high for five minutes then add wine.

Scrap the bits off the bottom with a wooden spoon and turn off the heat.

In a bowl add 1.5 tablespoons of canola oil and chopped herbs.

Mix well and then cover the chicken.

Place the chicken back in the dutch oven and top with lemon slices.

Place in the oven and bake for 1.5 – 2 hours.

Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes before you start carving.

Here is the close up of the finished chicken:

You can pour the sauce from the chicken juices over the chicken but you will notice how juicy this is without it.

Happy Cooking!

Let’s cook!

Herb-Crusted Classic Roast Chicken

1 whole chicken

3 -4 tablespoons fresh herbs

1 cup chicken broth

1 lemon, zest and cut into quarters

salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 450.  In a small bowl add lemon zest and herbs.

Place the chicken, breast side up, on a large roasting pan. Rub the herbs and generous amount of salt and pepper over the chicken. Stuff the cavity with lemon wedge and whole herbs with stems (in this case the thyme).

Roast in the oven for 20 minutes.

Reduce the oven temperature to 400 and continue to roast until your meat thermometer in the thickest part away from the bone reads 170, about 40 minutes longer from when you reduced the temperature.

Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes befor you carve. Time to make the pan sauce. Pour the drippings from the pan into a sauce pan. Add the rest of the broth and bring to a boil and stir. Be sure that you added the bits from the  bottom of the roasting pan to the sauce pan. Cook until the sauce is slighty reduced which takes about the total time for the chicken to rest.

I made mashed potatoes and peas with this meal. Here is how I plated the dinner:

And here is the close-up:

So in total time this dinner takes just over an hour. I think I ate half the chicken and the sauce you can store in the freezer for the next time you have chicken.

Tomorrow I will post roasted tomato soup.

Happy Cooking!

French Style Chicken in Dutch Oven

1 whole chicken, giblets removed and discarded

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

1 small celery stalk, chopped

6 medium garlic cloves, peeled and trimmed

1 bay leaf

1 sprig fresh rosemary

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Pre-heat oven to 250. Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel and season with salt and pepper.

In the dutch oven over medium heat, add olive oil until just smoking.  Add the chicken breast-side down. Scatter the onion, celery, garlic, bay lead, and rosemary around the chicken.

Cook until the breast is lightly brown which takes about 5 minutes. Use a wooden spoon and insert into the cavity of the chicken, flip breast-side up and cook until chicken and vegetables are slightly brown which takes another 5 minutes.

Remove the dutch oven from the heat and place a large sheet of foil over the pot, then cover tightly with the lid and transfer to the oven.

Bake chicken for an hour and half. Once the chicken shows 160 degrees transfer the chicken to a serving plate.

Cover with foil and let rest for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, strain chicken juices from the pot throught a mesh strainer.

Add lemon juice and pour into a pan and set over low heat.

Time to make the eggplant.

Sauteed Eggplant and Roasted Garlic

1 eggplant

1 onion, sliced

1 head of garlic

1 tablespoon olive oil

Add garlic to foil

Wrap in foil the garlic and add to the oven (I did this while the chicken was cooking).

Cut the eggplant in slices then, slice the eggplant into 1/4″ slices.

In the saute pan add onions, roasted garlic, and eggplant with olive oil.

Cook until eggplant is cooked.

Time to make this meal complete. Take the jus sauce from the chicken and pour into a serving dish.

Here is the final plating:

This was a great Sunday dinner and even though it took awhile to cook, I did enjoy it.

Happy Cooking!

Ok now to tonight’s dinner.

This is tender, fall-off -the-bone chicken! I love this recipe and meal because it is simple yet has AWESOME flavor. I also like it because Jen works from home and has to smell the dinner cooking slowly. Ok let’s get to cooking.

Whole Chicken with Spice Rub in the Crock Pot

4 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons paprika

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon thyme, chopped

1 teaspoon white pepper

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 onion, chopped

In a small bowl, combine the above minus the onion.

Rub spice rub onto the chicken.

Put chopped onion in botton of the crock pot.

Add chicken to the crock pot and add no liquid at all! The chicken will make it’s own yummy juices.

Put the lid on the crock pot and cook for 8 hours on LOW.

The chicken will just fall off the bone but here is a picture right when I got home:

So the only thing I had to do to complete this meal was make a salad. Here is the finished product:

Now if you want a  simple thing to make in the crock pot for dinner then try this and the clean up is a breeze.

Ok this Sunday I am going to make a pretty big meal and I will make HOMEMADE MASHED POTATOES because so many people have expressed their displeasure of my use of instant mashed potatoes on my steak dinner, and on other posts.  For the first time, I had comments that I couldn’t even post because the remarks were not clean!   Who knew people were so passionate about homemade mashed potatoes?? So I will make them, due to popular demand, and you will see why I don’t make mashed potatoes from scratch on the weekdays with my work schedule. Happy TGIF!

Happy Cooking!

Check back tonight for recipe and pictures.

Almost TGIF!

Roasted Whole Chicken

1 whole chicken (I cooked two because one is not enough for 4)

6 cloves of garlic pressed

1 lemon cut into 4 wedges

half of an onion cut into wedges

olive oil

Trader Joe’s lemon pepper and ginger grinder

fresh rosemary springs

Pre-heat your oven to 400 and place the chicken onto your roasting pan. Coat the chicken with olive oil.

Stuff the chicken with onion, garlic, lemon, and rosemary.

Top the chicken with lemon pepper mix.

Place the chicken into the oven and time to make the potato salad.

Red Onion Potato Salad – Jen’s mom recipe

5 large red potatoes, diced

1 cup celery, chopped fine

1 cup red onion, chopped

1/3 cup fresh parsley, chopped

1/4 bottle Zesty Italian dressing

3 teaspoons red wine vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

Peel, dice and boil potatoes with salt and pepper.  Drain into collander.

In a bowl (and while hot) pour dressing and vinegar over the potatoes tossing 1 – 2 times.

Put the potatoes into the refrigerator to chill. Check on the chicken and after 30 minutes of cooking I baste every ten minutes (this makes a big difference in flavor and moisture).

Broccoli with Pine Nuts

3 tablespoons pine nuts

2 teaspoons olive oil

3 cups of broccoli

2 teaspoons balasmic vinegar

Toast the pine nuts in a dry pan over medium heat and stir constantly until they are light brown. This usually takes 2-4 minutes.

Steam the broccoli for 4-6 minutes and add the roasted pine nuts to a bowl.

Transfer the broccoli to serving bowl and add vinegear olive oil mixture.

Mix nuts and vinegar/oil well into the broccoli and it is ready to serve.

Time to finish the potato salad. Remove the potatoes from the refrigator and add celery, red onion, and parsley.

Chicken should be done now (temperature needs to show meat at 180 degrees).

Here is how I plated the chicken:

Here is how Tony’s made his plate:

If you have never tried to roast a whole chicken this is one recipe that is easy and your chicken will be moist. 

Today, Jen and I get to attend a crawfish boil at our neighbor’s house. I am going to make awesome jalapeno corn bread from scratch where the recipe is from Jen’s grandmother, Nan.  Be sure to check back tonight for recipe/pics.

Happy Easter and Happy Cooking!