I apologize for the lack of posts last week. It was a rough week, but I still dropped the ball and I hope to do better in the future! I hope this post at least makes up for it a little... I think it's going to be a long one!
You all know I hate raw chicken. I can't stand touching it or really even looking at it. But since my grandma gave me a roasting rack and roast chicken was on sale at the grocery store last week, I knew the time had come to face my fear.
So I did. I bought a roasting chicken. And I was starting to get kind of excited... Being able to roast a chicken is like a coming of age, right? I would take the giblets out of the inside and boil them in water with some spices and have chicken stock and my roast chicken would come out beautifully with tons of juice to make gravy with and we would have all sorts of leftover chicken to make all those yummy meals that call for already cooked chicken and then I could make soup out of the bones... It was going to be beautiful...
How's that for a defensive stance? It looks like it wants to fight. Well fight we shall.
The problems started when I took the giblets out of the inside of the chicken. When I roasted a turkey for Thanksgiving a few years back (Yes, I've roasted a turkey but not a chicken... And yes, to me there is a huge difference.) there were like three livers and two necks and who knows what else in the bag. There were only two little pieces of I don't know what part in THIS bag. Not enough to do anything with. Bah. Oh well, at least I'll have chicken. I muttered to myself about not being surprised since it was a sale chicken from Giant Eagle and they probably kept most of that stuff and sold it separately for an exorbitant price to make up for the sale.
Then I looked more closely and realized that the neck was still attached.
So I swallowed the panic that was rising in my throat and did what any sensible grown woman would do in a moment of kitchen crisis. I called my grandma.
Hello, grandma, I'm getting ready to roast my chicken and it appears that the neck is still attached. Is that normal?
Yes, just cut around it and snap it off.
...
...
You're joking right?
No, and don't forget to squeeze the gooby purple stuff out of those little crevices I told you about on the inside. I think those are the lungs and the chicken will taste funny if you leave them in.
*whimper*
This is my neckless chicken. I think I also broke its back. And yes that is the torture tool I used. It looks much less menacing and much more defeated now don't you think?
So that trauma over, I rinsed all the nastiness I could out of the middle and proceeded to pat it dry with paper towels both inside and out. Then I sprinkled the inside with salt. I meant to put some onion and garlic inside the chicken before I tied it up, but I forgot. Bummer.
Once the chicken's legs were tied to its tail and its wings were tucked under, I was beginning to feel much better. I placed it on the roasting rack, coated it with olive oil, and sprinkled some parsley, oregano, and basil on top. Go easy on the basil, it tends to be strong.
I then roasted my chicken for 1 hour and 45 minutes at 375 degrees. It was done a good hour before my hubby was due to be home... Oops...
Now, I may be biased, but I thought it looked fantastic. But there was almost no juice for gravy. Boo. There went dream number two. I made some roasted potatoes and carrots and made gravy out of the pork stock I had made a while ago while I waited for my hubby to come home.
And then we ate the entire thing. There wasn't nearly as much meat as I had imagined. There goes dream number three. It was pretty moist, but it didn't have much flavor. I think the onions and garlic that I forgot would have helped. And I did save the bones for soup... That dream remains yet to be...
My adventure being over I washed the mountain of dishes that goes with roast chicken and decided that I could do that again. I would still rather roast a chicken every day than cut up raw chicken breasts once a week... Ew...
