Today I went to the Logan Square Farmers Market, which always makes me feel quite content. There's just nothing like an apple straight from the tree, or a carrot right from the dirt. After you rinse it off.
I'd picked up my usual supply of fruits and veggies when I found myself pondering the sign for the farm-raised meat stand. I've casually been thinking about adding more birds to my diet. The guy at the booth greeted me, "Hey, you look like a smurf. You have a lot of blue on."
He suggested that it would be an easy Halloween costume. We had a brief conversation about fall and weather and the awesomeness of October 31st, which emboldened me to go ahead and ask for a chicken.
On my way home, I contemplated, "What the hell am I going to do with this thing?"
As far as cooking goes, I've got vegetables down. Not to brag, but I can make some pretty delicious meals. And I'm pretty sure I could even bake a decent batch of muffins without a recipe. However, I'm mildly intimidated by the fact that I haven't cooked meat (minus fish) for, mmmmmmm, 8-ish years?
Except for that one time when I made frozen meals for my grandma for Christmas. Instead of being nice and crumbly, the ground beef for the meat sauce turned out to be more along the lines of "spaghetti and meat-frisbees."
Anyhow, I've certainly never cooked a whole chicken before.
As I turned down my street, two of my neighbors were standing outside chatting while their black hen pecked away at the sidewalk. It reminded me of riding the combi's to school in Mexico, and I thought about the delicious mustard chicken dish my host mama used to make. So now that's the plan, Stan!
Hey, I had never cooked a whole chicken before this summer. It's super-easy. Don't worry about trussing, I never do that. Just salt and pepper. This video is good: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNQuvtx5LAU.
ReplyDeleteOne tip so as not to get chicken grease all over your oven (not fun to smell burning, or to clean) is to add a little water to the bottom of the pan so that when the fat drips off, it doesn't splatter off the bottom of the pan all over your oven. I just learned of this yesterday because I was tired of chicken grease splatter, so I don't know if it actually works.