Spring Chicken

So it's been a while since I've posted, but I just had to share this recipe/technique! Recently I have been trying to cook more at home, to be healthier and more on budget, and this article from my favorite food magazine Everyday Food from "Sarah's Kitchen" makes it so easy. The article called it "Every-Week Roast Chicken" - although it reaped rewards for a good two weeks for just me and my husband, so I might try to make it once a month. I adapted her recipe a bit, so below is what I did:

"Every Month Roasted Chicken with Thyme and Lemon"

Preheat oven to 450.  Rub a whole chicken with olive oil and season with salt, pepper and herbs de provence.  Stuff cavity generously with a handful of fresh thyme stalks and lemon wedges. 

Roast on a foil-lined baking sheet about 12 minutes per pound, or until meat thermometer reads 165 in the thigh.  (Or, if your meat thermometer has no batteries in it, you can add on about 55 minutes additional cooking time to the 12-minute-per-pound rule like I did, just in case.  If the skin is golden, the legs feel loose when wiggled, and juices that run clear when you pierce above the leg with a knife).  When there's about 30 more minutes left of cooking time for the chicken, scatter baby carrots, pre-boiled potatoes and whole garlic cloves (still in the skin) and/or lemon slices around the edges of the chicken to let them roast as a side.

When the cooking time was up, I let the chicken rest for about 10 minutes, then carved it up  and froze the carcass and leftover bones.  I reheated the two legs and wings on a baking sheet at 450 to really crisp up the skin before serving.

My husband said this chicken was not only the best thing I'd ever made, but it was one of the best things he's tasted!  The next weekend, I put the carcass/bones in the slow cooker with a quartered onion, celery stalk, a handful of fresh thyme sprigs, a handful of parsley, a carrot, some garlic cloves, topped it all with water, left it on low for 8 hours and came home to homemade chicken stock! It just needed to be strained. Later that week, I used the stock (about 8 cups) to make two different soups.

Tortelloni Soup with Peas and Spinach

I used artichoke tortelloni and extra peas in this recipe.

A few days later, I made this soup using the remainder of the chicken stock.

Creamy Asparagus Soup with Roasted Pepper Puree