Meal 1 – Roast Chicken
The Recipe I used: Alison Roman Anchovy Butter Roast Chicken
Ingredients
Whole chicken, spatchcocked, salted on outside, put on sheet pan uncovered in the fridge overnight
anchovy butter
two sticks salted butter
two tins anchovy
4 cloves garlic
two lemons, halved
5 sprigs thyme
5 sprigs tarragon
two heads garlic, halved
3 medium carrots, roll cut
4 small yukon potatoes, halved or quartered
1 small red onion, peeled and quartered
olive oil
Directions
See Video
I was planning on making something else, otherwise I wouldn’t have spatchcocked the chicken for this recipe and it would have laid nicer in the pot.
I also did not use all the anchovy butter I made. I could have gotten away with making half.
Instead of making all the side dishes in the video, I opted for a one pot meal by adding potatoes and carrots.
Meal 2 – Chicken and Cabbage Soup
Ingredients:
5 small stalks celery
1 medium onion, diced
4 cloves garlic
3 large carrots, sliced
Half a cabbage, cut into 1-inch square pieces
1 tsp fennel seeds
3 bay leaves
Remaining chicken from night before
Leftover sautéed chanterelles and leeks
Broth made from leftover chicken bones
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
Filtered Water
Broth
After dinner, I deboned the chicken and put the bones in an enameled dutch oven with about 6 cups of filtered water along with juices left behind in the skillet from roasting. There was a bit of meat left on the bones. I covered the pot for two hours then uncovered for one hour to reduce the liquid. The bones were strained and broth put in the fridge uncovered because it was still a bit hot before I went to bed.
Directions
Sauté onions and celery in olive oil, salt, and pepper until beginning to soften, then add garlic, bay leaves, and fennel seeds. When onions begin to become translucent, add carrots. Sauté until carrots begin to soften, then add chicken, cabbage, and broth. Add water until cabbage is covered then cover with lid. When cabbage begins to wilt, add chanterelles and leeks.
It turns out I ran out of thyme—both dried and fresh—otherwise I would have added some. I also had some leftover chanterelles in the fridge, so I tossed those into the soup because, why not?
In case you’re curious about how I prepared the chanterelles and leeks:
Costco was selling a pound of chanterelles for $15 and I jumped on it, but I admittedly have never cooked with them before. I used this video as a guide. A lot of recipes online suggested cooking them with bacon. While I didn’t have any bacon on hand, I did have some reserved bacon fat, so I sautéed the chanterelles with a tablespoon of that, along with some leeks.
___________________________________________________
Whole chickens used to intimidate me until one night a friend showed me how to spatchcock one. She rubbed an alarming amount of salt on the outside of the chicken and placed it uncovered on a wire rack for two days in the fridge. The results were wonderful. The salt seasoned the meat deeply and created a wonderfully crispy skin, while spatchcocking ensured even cooking throughout. Dry brining is best when done for a couple of days, but overnight is fine too. This has become my go-to method for prepping chicken if I have the time.
Now, I primarily buy whole chickens. Because I’ve been focusing on buying higher-quality, pasture-raised meat, purchasing whole chickens is a more economical choice. I can create multiple meals from them. One night, I can roast chicken for dinner, then use the bones to make broth. I either freeze the broth for later or I use it for soup the next day. Any leftover meat gets tossed into salads or added to the soup pot.
Leave a Reply