Roast chicken

 

OK so I confess. I didnt roast a turkey. I dont like turkey and I dont think my friends do either. But more importantly the thought of roasting a turkey scared me. What if I failed...my thanksgiving would have been ruined. So I took the safer way out and decided to roast a chicken instead. And I am glad I did because the chicken turned out to be pretty darn good.

And it was so simple. Here is what I did:

Ingredients

• 1 whole Chicken, Rinsed And Patted Dry
• 3/4 cups Butter, Softened
• Lemons
• Rosemary
• Salt And Pepper, to taste

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Zest lemons. Strip the leaves off of one of the rosemary sprigs and chop it up finely.

In a bowl, combine softened butter, lemon zest, rosemary, and salt and pepper to taste.

Use your fingers to smear the butter mixture all over the chicken, under the skin, and inside the cavity. Cut the lemons in half and squeeze the juice of one lemon all over the chicken. Place the lemon halves (if they'll fit!) and the some rosemary leaves into the cavity of the bird.

 

Place the chicken into the oven and roast it for 1 hour, 15 minutes or until done.

 

I put the chicken directly on the rack. I used the drippings to make gravy (drippings on veggies, flour, chicken stock and fillings from one sausage...boil until it thickens).

Both delicious.

 

And so simple.

 

 

Buttermilk Roast Chicken

OK so the picture looks sad....there are just 2 pieces there.The thing is we forgot to take pictures and we realised this only when we had these 2 pieces left

Anyways here's what I used :

chicken..drumsticks preferred but you can use any fleshy chicken i suppose.6 pieces is enough for 2 people :)

1 cup buttermilk....curd and water in equal parts.mix well.that's Indian buttermilk i suppose.That's what i used anyways.

Vegetable oil.

Garlic

Chillies

Salt

Ground cumin...jeera.

Maple syrup (now the thing is...since i bought this syrup i have a big bottle of it....the concept of small bottles is unheard of in the US....pity; but ya...since i have this bottle the next few days i ll b making a lot of things which has maple syrup in it)

So this is what you do:

Put the chicken drumstick and the buttermilk together in a bowl and mix.put a little bit oil to it.Now peel 2 garlic cloves...2 pieces of garlic and smash it.I saw Nigella do it with a flat part of the knife so i do the same.you can use your fist if you want...but i strongly advice against it.So after you smash the garlic once put it in the bowl too.Now chop the chillies real fine and put it in.Salt to taste and about 1/2 tablespoon maple syrup (yes I had to buy a bottle of it for 1/2 tbsp) put it all in and mix well.

Cover it up and put it overnight in the fridge.If possible stir it once in between.

OK here's the thing.The book I was reading from asked me just to pick the pieces up and roast it.But there seemed too much of buttermilk mix to waste...so well,,,i went ahead and poured it all in....

anyways so preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.line a baking dish with aluminum foil.put everything (chicken mix i mean) in.pour in a little oil over the chicken.Roast for about 30 minutes.

Serve.We had it without anything else...oh ya I had maaza and Mono had White wine.but well...no food side dish.

Yummm

Honeyed Roast Chicken

Ok so now that i baked that cake yesterday i got into the cooking mode and well cooked up a storm today...

i made 3 things.all from this awesome receipe book my friend gave me.

the first one was a receipe using quail...but i substituted quail with chicken and i was happy with the result...

Ingredients:

1 tbsp sesame oil

1/4 cup soy sauce (though go a little easy on this one...if used in excess it turns the coating slightly bitter in a muddy way...trying tasting raw soy sauce and you will understand what i mean)

1/4 cup honey

2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp sesame seeds (the recipe didnt call for it but i used roasted sesame seeds)

about 1/2 kg chicken.

To make the coating, put oil, soy sauce, honey, lemon juice and sesame seeds in a small vessel and cook stirring continuously over a low flame...till it thickens slightly.

Boil the chicken in water with a little salt.not to cook the chicken but just to 1/4 cook it (i didnt know what half of semi was..basically i mean boil the chicken for 5 minutes)

Now drain the 1/4 cooked chicken and coat it with the above mixture and roast it..for about 15 minutes or till the chicken is cooked.

So easy no?