Day 3

Hi All!

This morning I made a couple very easy things I thought I would share. I'm a big supporter of 1)using what I have in my pantry, 2) recycling ingredients so they don't go bad in the fridge and 3) making enough food that I have leftovers. I did all of these things today so I'm pretty pleased.

I made a whole roast chicken with coconut milk, curry paste, and ginger. Roasted broccoli. Prepped salad dressing and salad greens for the week. And now I've got stock going, because, what else would I do with my chicken bones and vegetable scraps?

For the chicken: 
I made a whole spatchcocked (aka butterflied) roast chicken. Spatchcocking a chicken is easy - or at least way easier than spatchcocking a turkey - and has a ton of benefits. You end up with a bird that's evenly cooked (no dry breast!), a bird that only takes 30 minutes to cook rather than an hour, and last but not least, a raw back bone for that stock that you'll make later! 

So, you ask, how does one spatchcock a chicken? Grab your sharpest kitchen shears, cut out the backbone, and then press your chicken flat. Want more info? Check out J. Kenji Lopez-Alt's explanation on serious eats.  He is also the author of an amazing cook book, The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science which is a great resource.

If you don't want to deal with a whole chicken, buy whatever chicken bits you like best. I always encourage bone-in and skin on chicken. And I encourage making extra for leftovers (chicken on salad, chicken salad, chicken to put in tomorrow's curry, etc...)

Before you spatchcock your chicken, prep everything else:

Preheat your oven to 450° F
Line a rimmed baking sheet with tin foil

Mix:
1/2 cup coconut milk (full fat!)
1 tablespoon of curry paste I like Aroy-D green or yellow curry paste) if you don't have curry paste - but do have curry powder, turmeric, and ground chili - use those!
1 garlic clove crushed - or chopped into small pieces
1" worth of fresh grated ginger (sub 1tsp dry ginger if you don't have fresh)
1/2 tsp salt (use 1 tsp if you're using spice powders instead of curry paste)


Chop 1 large yellow onion into chunks - no need to make them pretty. Save the top, bottom, and skin for your future stock.
Place onion chunks and citrus slices on your lined baking sheet.

Once your marinade is ready to go - go ahead and prep your chicken. Save your backbone in a ziplock, label it, and toss it in the freezer for later use. Place your spatchcocked chicken on top of your onion on the baking sheet and rub on your marinade. Use all your marinade, making sure the whole bird is well coated. Now your bird is ready to go into the oven!

Your bird should be removed from the oven when the thickest part of the breast reaches 150°F and the joint between the leg and the body reaches 170°F. Once out of the oven, let it rest for 15 minutes before cutting in to it (I rarely do this, but that's because I'm terribly impatient. If you are patient, wait! Your chicken will be juicier and you will retain the sensation in your finger tips that I have lost after many years of impatiently touching very hot food.)

Don't have a thermometer? Buy one! Really, they are so useful.
But until then, it should take about 45 minutes for a 4-5 pound bird to cook. So at 40 minutes, take it out and check. Remember that cooked chicken should be opaque and that your chicken should not be dry. Odds are you might not eat your whole chicken at once - so slightly under done is better than way over done since when you reheat your bird she'll cook a bit more.

Okay, next:
While my chicken was in the oven, I cut and washed two heads of broccoli. I also quartered a couple red bell peppers, and tossed broccoli and peppers with fresh vegetable oil (I use rice bran oil) grated ginger, salt, chili, and lemon juice. Then I roasted them in the oven with my chicken for 15 minutes. The stems of the broccoli should be just barely fork tender. If they are burning, cover them with foil, this will also make them cook more quickly since they'll be steaming. Dont worry too much about your peppers burning though, they will taste delicious with a little char.

I also washed and chopped a bunch of kale for salads. If you are over kale, use spinach, or literally any other salad green. Store it in ziplocks - if it's moist, add in a dry paper towel. If it's dry, add in a damp paper towel - these will help your greens last in the fridge.

Lastly,
I made the following dressing:
1/2 cup tahini
1/4 cup water - add more if you like a thiner dressing
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons coconut aminos
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1tablespoon honey
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon ginger, minced

I doubled the recipe because I put this on everything - and it will stay good in your fridge for at least a week.

For lunch, I had chicken with some of the roasted veggies. I'll slice and save some of the breast meat to put on top of my salads for the rest of the week. And I'll save some for a curry that I'll make tomorrow, so I can use up the rest of my coconut milk!

Bonus:

Once you've collected enough veggie scraps (carrot tops, onion peels, celery tops and bottoms, leek bits are all great) and chicken bones, toss them all in a large pot, cover with water, and boil for at least an hour, ideally 2-3. If you have a pressure cooker - use it! It'll only take you 30 minutes! I tend to keep a bag (or three...) of veg scraps and meat bones in the freezer, making stock each time I've collected enough. 

Okay, that's all.

Happy Wednesday!