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

[bigmike&nan]

The brick really forces parts of the bird down onto the grill surface and crisps the dickens out of them. Lots of folks love that crispy skin - it's really tasty. Be super sweet to hubby and he'll fire up the grill for you. Any chickens that didn't get sold got torn down and went into chicken/mushroom hand pies - long after I went back into computer work I'd stop in there to get their hand pies.

Really give the cazuela recipe a look - it's remarkably good and healthy too.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

my hubby??? who didn't know who John Madden was either . . . BAHAHAHAHAAHAHA

Nope!
But he did make me a smoker and had a good laugh over the 8 turkey legs!

So the brick crisps the skin, hmmm . . . aren't you worried it would squeeze the juices out?

Chicken mushroom hand pies . . . now were talking, something I have never tried to make but now think I must!

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

p.s. I did look at that recipe and it looks awesome. Your recipes all sound so great, but have a lot more steps than I like; more like chef recipes I'm just a lazy old regular family cook!!!

I am going to try that one but it may take me a while to get around to it becasue it sounds like a long process, not that that is a bad thing though. How about YOU make it and have us over . . . I'll bring the chicken & the wine

 

[bigmike&nan]

Katy,

I did most of my serious cooking on my days off - looked forward to it. Being single for a long time it was fun to cook, I'd parcel up the leftovers into microwave lunch sized containers and take those to work for dinner. I didn't have to come home from work and cook for a big group (well I did for a while). Working and cooking, or being a housewife and cooking too is rough work. I can see why a lot of people like reading my stuff but don't have the time or energy to do it.

The cazuela recipe is something that takes about 3 hours or so. In 1999 I lived in Chile for about a year, so I was served this dish and made it a lot. A lot of folks in Chile have maids or "nannys" that work part of the day, doing laundry, cleaning the house and usually making something for dinner. Labor is stupid cheap there (20 percent of the population has 80 percent of the money and the other 80 percent of the population work any way they can, the maid we had charged us 5000 pesos a visit, or $10.00 !!). We'd have her come like 3 days a week. They'd put the cazuela on about noon. It's a boiled dinner - using chicken for it signified more of a special occasion, more often some of stew meat bones was pretty normal fare.

I've seen you posting a lot of stuff lately, I apologize for not chiming in on those threads - I was out of circulation since Thursday, got really sick (thought I'd had a heart attack), spent all of Saturday in the hospital and haven't been online much at all since Thursday. Glad as heck to be around and getting back into the rotation (so to speak).

 

[elizabethbinary]

So sorry to hear about your health bigmike!


Soooo... I did it!! I went for ALL OUT British Classic. Yorkshire pudding, roasted potatoes with caramelized onions, pearl barley and mushroom stuffing, steamed beans and tomatoes, and of course, homemade gravy!

Here she is:

Yeah so I suck a plucking, sue me!!!

MAN I AM FULL!!!

(He was SO GOOD!!!!!!)

 

[bigmike&nan]

Man now that looks good !! And yeah you pulled out all the stops but I am sure it was well worth the effort.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

beautiful! I can't believe how nice those Puddings look WOW! how was it all? & thanks for the pic!

 

[elizabethbinary]

Definitely worth the effort! There was so much food it was like Passover all over again.

Here's the Yorkie pud recipe I used: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Yorkshire-Puddings-14921

It was definitely a great way to have my first bird.

It was the first time in my entire life where everything was SO good, the gravy was actually the least flavourful thing!!! Chicken so good it didn't need it.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

YAY for home grown birds!!!

 

[herfrds]

DH's grandma was an awesome cook. Her recipes prove this.

She used to butcher her chicken, cut it up into pieces and soak in buttermilk. Then dip in flour seasoned with salt, pepper and paprika. Then dip back into the buttermilk and then in the flour mix again.
then fried it in a mix of hot lard and shortening til it was golden brown. Then she put the chicken in a pan and into a moderate oven 375F.

I've made this before and the family goes nuts for it.