Who Can Resist a Baked Chicken for Lazy People Recipe? (Not Us!)
No, we didn’t eat Charlie (Ginnny? Hermione?). I thought it would be cute to have a pic of one of our chickens, or at least one that we won’t be eating any time soon. And before you get your panties in a bunch, no we don’t eat our hens when they stop laying. We send them to a friend’s place in Redwood City to live out the rest of their unproductive lives. (Thank you Charmaine and Eric!) I call it the chicken retirement home.(Me Too! Better than the farm because we know what it means when you send a beloved family pet to the farm. ~Terri)
This is the chicken we are going to eat. The recipe called for a 4.5–5 pound chicken and the only one Zeke could find that was that big was a Foster Farms chicken. No Mary’s for us tonight. Oof.
I began the prep which including cutting some rosemary from our garden while Rei got some thyme. And yes, I was drinking champagne because, you know, it’s Wednesday.
I did not wash the chicken but I did remove all the parts that were inside before putting the liver back in per the Dorie Greenspan recipe. Tonight we are once again cooking with Dorie.
There’s half a head of garlic in the chicken along with some rosemary and thyme and some salt. The rest of the garlic is tucked in near the wing along with some more of the rosemary and thyme and a little bit of oregano. I am not a fan. I am definitely a fan of the garlic. You meant you’re not a fan of the oregano, right? It would be a sin to dislike garlic (fun fact: vampires are really cool but they’re allergic to garlic which really puts a damper on my relationship with them. Garlic is essential to my cooking, so they can never come over for dinner).
As the oven was pre-heating, Rei got started on the gougeres. The cherry tomatoes were already in the oven with some rosemary, olive oil, salt, and thyme. We upped the temp from 225 to 250 in hopes of reducing the cooking time by an hour. We will see how that goes. (Spoiler alert: they were fucking delicious because what’s not to love about tomatoes and rosemary and garlic? Trick question, we love everything about it; any other answer is incorrect and disqualified.)
The gougeres base is pretty much a choux paste. Rei once again had a great time stirring, and stirring, and stirring.
I left the kitchen to deal with a work related issue in the office and have no idea what Rei did after I left. Actually, I do. They should have put the choux paste in the mixer, let it cool for a minute, and then added the eggs. I’ll go check on that.
The part that Mom missed was me dancing on the kitchen counter and getting absolutely hammered on all of her best alcohols, like the emo rebellious teenager I am. I promptly designed a six-wheeled bicycle while intoxicated, then forcefully ejected all of the alcohol from my meatsuit before Mom entered the room so she didn’t notice anything amiss. (Ejecting liquid from a meatsuit is essentially peeing…you make it so much more complicated and dramatic, Rei!~Terri)
I chose to use cheddar this time instead of Gruyere just to change it up. Rei had the first batch in the oven and was waiting to get the second batch in. Between the tomatoes (250 degrees) and the chicken in the Dutch oven, there wasn’t enough space to get both batches in at the same time.
The tomatoes are coming along nicely. We had some cherry tomatoes leftover from something (gazpacho?) and Zeke picked some big fat ones up from the local market. I picked some of the last ones of the season off one of the truly unproductive tomato plants. It’s been a disappointing produce season overall in the Mead garden. Except for the herbs, which have done really well and we are definitely reaping the benefits of having real live plants in our yard instead of just buying caged ones from the local store.
We just can’t seem to make a good gougeres. They are pretty and light but they need more cheese. This is a different recipe from the last time we made them. Yep, I think that’s it. More cheese! More cheese and a lower oven temperature — the bottoms were burned while the insides were almost uncooked. (I think that was the cookie sheet…those gold ones are NOT good for baked goods. I thought the parchment paper would provide a shield…nope!~Terri)
The chicken is halfway done (45 minutes in) so it was time to add the potatoes, onions, and carrots. I think I should have chosen the bigger Le Creuset…the big oval one and not the standard Dutch oven. We’ll see how this works out. Which reminds me, I should move the tomatoes around.
And now we wait.
Wow! This recipe is a keeper. The chicken was perfectly cooked and Rei wanted me to get a shot with the steam coming out.
The goodies inside include the garlic and the herbs.
The veggies were all cooked and we opted not to remove them and make a sauce. Next time we are going to leave out the potatoes, add more onions, and maybe add some celery. And more garlic! I vote against celery but may be convinced (bribed) with the addition of more onions and garlic…
Plated with the tomatoes and a bit of baguette, it was pretty and tasty. This is definitely a keeper of a night of recipes. The best part of the baguette was smearing the super soft garlic on the bread and putting a tomato or two on top — *insert Italian chef’s kiss thing here*. Yum.
Paired with champagne and some yummy butter for the baguette, delish! After the last few nights of failed executions, it was such a relief to execute a meal in an acceptable manner. Other than the butter on the bread, there was no butter in this meal.
Until Rei decided to make the chocolate shortbread cookies. These are the “French” ones from my French teacher, and I’m totally bringing some in to her tomorrow to see how they compare!
If we have another butter failure, we are no longer buying Clover butter. We are going to move on to Straus’. That butter fat/water content is closer to European style butter.
The dough is in the fridge and frankly it’s going to take too long to chill to include the results in this post so Rei, how about your wrap this puppy up?
Okay! I used all my creative juices on my snarky reactions to what Mom wrote earlier in this post that I have no idea what to write here. Oof.
I also have homework that I’m procrastinating, so maybe I should make this quick. It is kinda late (ish), so I should probably get on that soon…oops.
Mom is being distracting by yelling at the people playing poker in the YouTube video she’s watching, because apparently she’s never heard of earbuds before…
Fingers crossed the shortbread works?
Have a chronticifulocuos day, and until next time, ciao!
Rei and Terri
