Roast Chicken Transformations

I bravely embarked on my first roast chicken adventures way back in November. I guess 3 months is a long enough hiatus so I made my second roast chicken. This time right side up.

I rubbed roasted garlic-lemon-thyme butter on and under the skin of the chicken and stuffed it with lemon-thyme, lemon, garlic, and onion. Any remaining tidbits of garlic, lemon and onion got thrown in the roasting pan too. Seasoned it well with salt and pepper and once again forgot to season the cavity. Dur.

I didn't really use a specific recipe and wasn't sure how much the chicken weighed, maybe about 3 pounds or so. I roasted it at 400 degrees for the first 10 minutes then reduced the heat to 375 and roasted it for a total of about an hour. I took the chicken out of the oven being absolutly sure that when I pierced the thighs the juices ran clear. And then seeing a little bit of pink, had to put it back in the oven. Did this about two times but it still came out delicious and super moist, although the chicken didn't brown well in certain spots. I like the convenience factor of making a roast chicken -- meals for the rest of the week were fast and/or simple to put together.

Roast Chicken & Sweet Potatoes with Romesco
Adapting Goin's recipe from Sunday Suppers at Lucques, I cut the peeled sweet potatoes into about 1 inch dice, tossed it with brown butter, brown sugar, lemon-thyme, salt and pepper, and roasted it for about 30 minutes. Then drizzled a bit of romesco over the roast chicken and sweet potatoes. This made for a delicious lunch, but a tiny bit oily. A squeeze of lemon juice and a piece of freshly baked baguette to sop up some of the juices would have been great.

Roast Chicken Wrap with Tahini, Romesco & Pepper Jack Cheese
And ungodly amounts of La Yucateca red habanero hot sauce. Yeah, this dish is all over the place - Middle East, Spain, California, and Yucatan. I know that sounds like a weird mix of stuff in the tortilla wrap but it was delicious, more like a home-created chicken taco. And I got to use up bits of leftover ingredients instead of throwing them out next week when I realize that they've expired.



Pho Ga, a Vietnamese chicken noodle dish
I simmered the saved chicken carcass for an hour and a half or so, seasoned it with salt. I forgot to get ginger for the broth though. I don't know how authentic that is since I looked at many different recipes and some had it and some didn't. The "rice sticks" didn't come with any instructions so I cooked it in boiling water but I think it was supposed to be soaked in lukewarm water. And of course some fixins: cilantro, basil, serrano chili, onion, fish sauce, sambal, and mungbean sprouts. I added my own touch with some fresh enoki mushrooms. This dish was so refreshing with all the herbs and very comforting with the homemade chicken stock. I didn't quite enjoy trimming the mungbean sprout ends though. It seemed like a waste of time. What's wrong with eating the ends?



This made for a very spicy mouth. The thinly sliced serrano chili kept exploding into fiery heat when I bit into them every other bite. And as usual, I got overzealous with the sambal and turned the milky clear chicken broth into an orange bowl of capsaicin ready to lock into every taste bud in my mouth. I kind of enjoyed that in some masochistic way.

Chicken Breast Wrap with Ricotta Salata Salsa Verde, Raddichio & Tahini
There was a tiny bit of feta salsa verde left over from the last Writing Pad class. I added some small diced ricotta salata and olive oil and mushed it around a little bit in the jar. Sliced the last remainders of the roast chicken sans skin, spooned some of the salsa verde, squeezed half a lemon, sprinkled a pinch of salt and pepper. The tortilla, tahini, and raddichio are still waiting patiently in separate containers for assembly later. My favorite part of the work day - lunch. If it's not yummy I can always cleanse myself by reading some delicious food blogs. :)