Chicken Leftovers

In my last post, I roasted one tasty chicken. There was plenty of leftover meat on that little bodybuilder, so I stripped the bone of all the white and dark meat (which I separated). What to do with all this delicious chicken? I mean, standing in front of an open fridge holding a leftovers container of cold meat is nice and all, but it gets kinda routine after a while. Instead, I decided I was going to use the pie crust and one of the several cylinders of crescent rolls and make a chicken pot pie!!

This was supposed to be for 6 people. It was for the two boys and me... its gone.

Easy peasy, right? Right!! And delicious. It was just a pie crust (which you really don't need for this recipe), one container of crescent rolls, can of cream of chicken condensed soup, 1/2 cup of milk, 2 cups of mixed vegetables, 1 small russet potato (cut and cooked), and plenty of leftover chicken. If you are gonna use the pie crust, make sure to first spray your pie pan, then put in the pie crust. Now, what I forgot to do was to bake it in the oven til it gets a little golden (about 10-12 minutes at 350F)... it didn't ruin the pot pie by any means, it just could've been even better!

I prefer a slightly runnier filling, but you can do two cans of soup
instead of adding milk to get a thick filling.

While you're baking your pie crust, mix together all the other ingredients, except for the crescent rolls. Salt, pepper, season to taste. Once the pie crust is ready, pour the mixture in the pan. Cover with the crescent rolls all flattened out. Bake for 25-30 minutes at 350F or until the top crust is golden-brown. Serve. Get seconds before everyone else does. Really, it was so good, the boys ate thirds directly from the pan.

Soooooo good!

Happy eating, my friends!

PS - Tomorrow I'll tell you what I did with the bones!

Roasted Chicken

Chicken. Its a staple in our household. BBQ chicken quarters, chicken breast in basically everything, ground chicken tacos or chili. Deliciousness! But I haven't really gotten into a whole chicken. I did butcher one about a year ago, but I haven't cooked one myself... until now!!

Lighting in my kitchen is terrible for my phone,
but this guy looks like he spent the summer on a beach.

Last night, I roasted a whole 8lb. chicken for dinner and it was the juiciest, tastiest chicken I've ever had! So what did I do to accomplish this feat? Practically nothing.

Take out the chicken, take out the neck and giblets, and let it come to room temperature while you preheat the oven to 450F.

Once its at room temperature, pat the chicken dry, inside, outside, top, bottom, all over. Completely dry!

Profusely sprinkle salt and pepper on the inside and the outside of the chicken.

Now you gotta truss up this bird. Quite kinky. Start with it breast side up, take a 2ft. piece of twine, put the center under the tail, cross the end and loop around the legs to pull the legs together, flip the chicken over and tuck in the wings, use the twine to keep the wings tucked, pull the twine tight and tie a knot at the neck, then cut off the extra string, and turn it back to breast up.

You really need a pan and a rack to keep the bottom from burning, they're available at any grocery store. Now, here is a VERY important point. After you put the chicken on the rack and the rack in the pan, you should put 1-2 cups of water down in the pan. What for, you ask. Smoke. See, the first time I made this chicken, I filled out apartment with smoke, the alarm went off, all the windows had to be thrown open, and I threw a bit of a fit. It was the drippings, salt, and pepper burning in the pan! So, this time, I put a little water in the pan and put more about halfway through cooking to prevent smoking. It still smoked a little bit, but nothing too bad.

Moral of that paragraph, put water in the roasting pan.

Bawk bawk. Time to go in the oven!

The cooking time is 50-60, but it goes about 80 minutes for my oven. But, the main point is to cook your chicken to at least 165F on a meat thermometer stuck in the breast where it meets the thigh.

Once you get the chicken cooked, take that sucker out and leave him alone! Yes, let him sit. Let him chill for about 15-20 minutes so the juices that are running about can soak into the delicious meat. After you let the chicken hang out for a while, just carve up the amount you're going to eat now. Then after dinner you can pack up the leftovers for some delicious sandwiches, chicken soup, and chicken pot pies! Don't forget to keep the bones and wingtips to make some chicken stock!

Happy cooking, my friends!