Help me pick the recipe for my first self-processed bird! :)

[elizabethbinary]

I'm not sure what to do. My classic is the classic. A roast chicken - I am no stranger to it. I can do an excellent roast chicken and my oven has a rotisserie setting which just makes the skin crisp up perfectly.

However I feel like maybe I should do something special with them. Dress them all fancy. Make a gorgeous french meal with them. However, not so skilled in this area.

For my first one should I just go with the classic roast or something more....?

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

this thread has a couple really good sounding Coq a vin recipes on it:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=434078

 

[elizabethbinary]

I've made Coq au Vin a couple times and for some reason it never tastes as good as people rave about to me... I would say it's the way I'm making it but I've made it three times now from different recipes. (might be because I don't use bacon/pork though)

I'll look through the page and see if I can find a good one though!!

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

I don't like it that way either lol! but you asked for something fancy . . .
my families favorite way is spatchcocked and cooked with vegis/onions, very simple but beautiful & yummy.

 

[elizabethbinary]

Quote:
Haha well!

You know what... something to be said for the classics and the simples, eh? I think some pearl onions and veggies sound perfect with a nice butterflied and roasted bird. Thank you!

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

& lot's of roasted garlic!

 

[bigmike&nan]

You ladies are right, there is nothing more comforting than a roasted chicken, it spells dinner at home. This southern Italian/Sicilian place I worked at was a restaurant and high end food to go "deli". We sold three types of roasted chickens: our lemon chicken (simply a whole lemon inserted in the cavity before roasting) a rosemary/garlic chicken (whole springs of rosemary and a half a head of garlic) and chicken mattone (or sometimes called brick chicken, my recipe for it is here)

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=165040

. Great stuff. I know how to make Coq au Vin but I eat more roasted chickens than I'd ever make Coq au Vin. My wife's on Weight Watchers and we live a lot simpler than I used to say five years ago when I was a bachelor. Good thing too.

There's nothing more down home than fried chicken and dumplings, or taking a roasted bird and making a great chicken soup with a fancy pasta shape to pump it up a little (I like using caviatelli).

Instead of ways to prepare chicken let me link you to some things I'd serve WITH roasted chicken. Some of the photos you'll see use a duck breast as the entree, just replaced it with the cut up roasted bird.
Big's white and wild rice medley - served with asparagus spears tossed in a tiny bit of butter and lemon zest, some slices of seasonal fruit (in this case Mexican papaya). Really very good.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=171687

Also very good with roasted chicken is a simple pasta dish - I love orichette (which means little ears), it looks sort of like a shell pasta - just start your pasta in the cooking water and by the time it's done the "condiment" for it is ready too. Orichette pasta with onions and peas:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=167454

Another way to cook chicken would be the ala cacciatore

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=171661

And another whole avenue to go down is a Chilean dish called Cazuela, where the chicken parts are combined with other ingredients (onions, squash, corn, ect.) to make a simple healthy dish. Once made it's served in a wide bowl on a plate, some folks eat it right out of the bowl, some take the chicken and large cut vegetables out - then eat the soup first and finish with the remains on the plate, it's a very healthy dish that is so good and pretty easy:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=164659

Have a look at some of these ideas, and good luck


Michael

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

so what does the brick do? the recipe sounds great, really a lot like the way I spatchcock a bird, so I am just wondering; I mena i get that it flattens it a bit, but how does that affect the cooking? just curious, I love to learn new things but always want to know why

the nuns hated me when I was growing up

 

[booker81]

I love me some "flat-a$$ chicken" as DH calls it

Just make sure to let that birdie rest a few days in the fridge, it will be well worth it! Same day eating is, well, meh. Not very good.

I cheated. I used the turkey roaster, put the taters and onions under him, and roasted away. He was tasty, and so were the taters and onions!

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

hmmm . . . the roaster idea is a good one I think! If I even say flat !@S chicken myfamily will call it that forever, they are bad enough with spatchcocked