ok so I grabbed the bull by the horns and decided to jump right into cooking by trying to cook like a grown-up and figured that cooking an entire chicken would make me one. Not only would it allow me to practice my cooking skills but I would also be able to show everyone how to stretch a chicken dinner over the course of a week by making a chicken one night, having left-overs, then chicken sandwiches and then chicken soup...but it didn't turn out that way.
but I didn't know that when I started the dish...So me and Jacob started by cleaning out the 'cavity' and putting the livers, lungs, hearts and necks all in a separate bag and throwing them away. If I had been making a soup I might have kept the neck because it's great for making the stock.
and then we put it on a medium sized tray about an inch high.
however, as much as I want to cook chicken I have a very hard time doing it. It just looks so alive to me with it's little wings. Every time I look at it I picture it waddling towards me or trying to flap away. But one must get over their fears so I continued...
Chicken is very versatile when it comes to flavoring and seasoning. Personally, I enjoy simply flavored chicken, so I just used a little bit of garlic powder, salt, and pepper. This time I also used a small amount of steak seasoning to give it that smoky flavor and I also used crushed rosemary.
Although it might seem expensive or hard to get, rosemary, as well as other herbs are very easily located in the produce section of the grocery, all ranging from 99 cents to 2 dollars, depending on the amount and brand of herb you choose to use.
so I crushed the rosemary up, after removing it from the stem.
I then added about a tablespoon of water in the bottom of the pan. I always do this to make sure it stays moist.
after adding all the spices to a bowl..
...I mixed them up.
whenever I'm making any dish that takes longer than 15 minutes, I usually cut up some hors d'oeuvres. It's nice to keep some apples and crackers around just for this reason.
anyway, back to our chicken failure. We made our first mistake by not having a microwave. I like to cover the chicken in either olive oil or softened butter to make the spices stick. Since we wanted butter, but didn't have a microwave, we softened the butter on the stove, but forgot about it about 2 seconds too late and it was melted. We attempted to put it in the freezer but it didn't really work so we started slathering the bird in half melted butter.
ta da! But the fun didn't stop there...
we then patted and rubbed the spices onto the chickens body...
...making sure that each spot was covered.
like so.
 |
| then I partially covered it in tin foil to retain the moisture when it cooked. |
and popped it in the oven, at 350 degrees for an hour.
little did I know what was about to happen..
...but I didn't know so I heated up the rice from the night before as well as some mixed veggies in a sort of stir fry.
and then an hour passed and we took the chicken out, figuring it was done.
I mean it looked done...kinda.
so I figured we had planned everything perfectly and all the food had come out together so I put the rice mixture in a serving bowl...
...but my excitement faded as soon as we started cutting the chicken.
Jacob cut it down the middle, just like you're supposed to, but we weren't sure if it was done.
so we sliced the breast, and tried a bit...a very small bit I might add.
and we figured it was done, so Jacob started slicing and when he got to the middle...it was bloody...yes bloody and raw...and we just about gave up. We threw it in the oven at 375 degrees for another half an hour, cut it up, put it in tupperware and called it a day. I'm pretty sure the only mistake was that it wasn't cooked for long enough on a high enough heat. And although I want to do this again to show you all how to stretch a chicken over the course of a week, I'm not sure I'll be able to look at a chicken again for a while.
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