Kitchen Adventures . . . or: How to Roast a Chicken Upside Down

Or, why sometimes I am really glad that I'm a singleton because there's no one around to see my mistakes. Except then I publish them on this blog. And, then again, perhaps if someone had been around I wouldn't have roasted my chicken upside down!

I'm usually a boneless, skinless chicken breast sort of gal. And, yes, I know that the bones and skin are where the flavor can be found. I know that, I really do. But I also just think of chicken as a vehicle for other flavors. And when you're just using it as a vehicle, who really cares what it tastes like underneath? I guess that boneless skinless chicken breast is the low-end, workhorse car that gets you from point A to point B with no problems, it's reliable and it's convenient. But, on it's own, it doesn't really *pop*, if you know what I mean. Now, a roasted chicken, on the other hand, is maybe the Cadillac of chicken (if there's such a thing). It's classic, it's timeless, and it makes a statement. My brother, whom I love to bits and pieces, doesn't like chicken. But he does like whole, roasted chicken. And, after law school, while he was studying for the bar and looking for a fancy-pants lawyer job, he worked in the kitchen of Commander's Palace. This was one of the upsides to living in New Orleans in a post-Katrina world: someone with NO (!!!!!) kitchen experience could be hired and put to work in one of the most venerable, timeless restaurants in New Orleans. And, for those of you who happen to visit the city, I think that a meal at Commander's is worth every single penny. I digress. So, my fancy-pants lawyer brother thinks that he knows a thing or two about cooking (and he does) and he's been pestering me to try the whole chicken thing for awhile now. So, I was at Costco and I bought 2 whole organic chickens. The first one made its way into chicken cacciatore, which was really good but I did learn that my future is not in butchering. I didn't want to have to cut up the chicken, and I've heard that a simple roast chicken is a hallmark of a good cook, so I decided to try it. I found a recipe for Lemon & Thyme Roasted Chicken that looked great because I had all of the necessary ingredients right on hand.

It's fairly simple: you start with a sort of gremolata of lemon zest, chopped thyme, garlic, and olive oil.


And then you lovingly rub this mixure all over your chicken. I even thought that I was being super-smart because I went under the skin and rubbed all of the garlicky, lemony, thyme-y goodness there, on what I thought was the breast of the chicken. Then you quarter a lemon (the one that you got the zest from) and jam it into the cavity of the chicken.

Yes, here's my chicken, in all of it's upside-down glory, ready to be roasted. It's not like I've never seen a roast chicken before, you'd think that I would have pondered the fact that the legs were on the bottom. What can I say? It looked right to me.


The chicken is roasted at 450 degrees for 20 minutes and then at 375 degrees until it's done. Ideally, one would have a meat thermometer (and I am going to get one!) and check to see if it's reached an acceptable temperature. I just cooked mine until I thought it was done (about another hour, which is what the recipe stated too). It came out of the oven and it looked delicious and it smelled even better and I was SO excited to eat it. So, I grabbed my knife and I cut into where I thought the breast was and I hit bone. There was hardly any meat! And I thought, WTF? These organic chickens are a total rip-off! There is like, no meat on this chicken! But the little meat that I ate tasted so good and I decided that this was a great recipe.


So, I bet you're wondering, how did I finally figure out that I roasted it upside down since I certainly didn't figure it out when I was trying to eat it? Well, another thing that my brother is a huge proponent of is homemade stock. And, in theory, I'm all for it. Tastes better, economical, and darn it, Martha likes it. Also, Nancy, at The Dogs Eat the Crumbs had a really great post on making turkey stock after Thanksgiving and then I just resolved that I was going to try my hand at making stock. And, I figured that I had to at least make stock out of my chicken with no meat to get some of my money's worth! And that's how I discovered that I cooked the chicken upside down, when I was taking the rest of the meat off of the chicken, I flipped it over and, low and behold, there was all of the meat!


It turns out, making stock is really, really easy. I don't have a recipe because I just called my brother and asked him how to do it. The funny thing is, my brother never really rocked on recipes but since his stint in the restaurant kitchen, he thinks that recipes are for simpletons (like me) so he doesn't use them (but trust me, this often results in some catastrophic failures as well as epic successes). So, I called him and he told me: "well, you basically get out a huge pot, put in the carcass, cover it with water and add carrot, onion, some garlic, and if you want to get fancy you can add tomato paste and some other stuff but I don't do that." Hmm, thanks. Needless to say, we called and texted a few more times that morning. But, the great thing that he told me was to bring it up to a bare simmer on the stove and then put it in a 200 degree oven for 8-10 hours in a covered pot. This meant that I could make my stock and go about my business, leave the house, no big deal. The stock takes care of itself. Then, when your 8-10 hours is up, you remove the carcass and vegetables, etc from the stock, you strain it really well, and you put it in containers to freeze for future use. And, you pat yourself on the back because now you a) know how to roast a chicken upside down and rightside up and b) know that making stock is easy peasy.

Continue reading here: BBA S&S;: Loafin' Around

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