We spent about 2 hours practicing piping choux paste in pastry school, and I was TERRIBLE at it. Part of the problem is that I have trouble holding the bags the way they taught it because of arthritis. And I wound up with too many tails. The book uses a slightly different technique. (I may also try switching hands, using my dominant right hand at the bottom of the bag rather than at the top. I was trying that the last time I piped anything and it seemed to work better for me.)
I'm also going to try it using some Wilton bag clips. Also, the book says to use a slightly smaller tip than the one we used in pastry school (3/8" versus what I think was either 7/16" or 1/2".)
I've roasted a lot of chickens over the years, beginning in graduate school and thereafter, until I married my husband who prides himself on his chicken roasting, which is not quite what I prefer. A 4-5 pound chicken would last me for the week. I'd eat it with sides for a couple of days, then cut it up and make some kind of a chicken dish--casserole or chicken over rice, chicken with pasta or soup--and I'd boil up the bones to make broth. In those days, they would also give us the "innards," and I would cook those up separately in a small pot and add that broth to the other broth.
With two of us, the chicken does not last that long, but I still reserve the bones--usually until I have several chickens or else those from a turkey--and make broth. Whole chickens were very inexpensive. Up until a couple of years ago, I would buy a couple when they were on sale for 50 cents a pound. It was more like 69 cents a pound on sale when we left Texas last year. Here, I don't think that I've seen under 99 cents a pound for a whole chicken. However, whole chicken legs or quarters are often 49 cents a pound on sale.
I use, and would still use, the Betty Crocker's Cookbook; my mother gave me the 1978 edition for Christmas that year. It included a table that said to roast a 3-4 pound (unstuffed) chicken at 375F for 1 hour 45 minutes to two hours and 15 minutes. I roasted it that way for years in a square oven baking dish. I've tried other recipes. A wild-rice with cherry stuffed chicken from Bon Appetit never cooked properly (that one was somewhat raw), although I tried the recipe twice, so I gave up on it.
I checked the Betty Crocker cookbook for a chicken roasted with vegetables, but it does not have such a recipe. I went online and looked at various ones, and what I did this time reflects one from a blog. (I think it is called Seven Spatulas.) A lot of recipes were "fussy," like the one where the chicken is cooked on top of the vegetables, which are then finished on top of the stove--no problem there--but it then wanted the chicken, after sitting out for 30 minutes to go back into the oven on a half-sheet pan at high temperature for browning. That seemed more trouble than it was worth.
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This reply was modified 8 years, 1 month ago by
BakerAunt.
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This reply was modified 8 years, 1 month ago by BakerAunt.
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This reply was modified 8 years, 1 month ago by BakerAunt.
Roasting a chicken is extremely easy, though you can make it a lot more complex if you want. Sometimes I treat the inside of it like I would a larger bird, throw in some prunes that have been soaked in brandy or rum, some apple slices, lemon wedges and almonds. (James Beard recommended this inside a goose, but it works in chicken and turkey, too.) The drippings will make a wonderful gravy.
Sides, well, that's a matter of what you like. But that's a subject for another day and thread.
Last week I had made Chinese BBQ pork (or chau siu) after marinating the pork for a few days. Had a lot of leftover so made chow mein with it. Added tons of veggies (mushrooms, bean sprouts, baby corn, bamboo shoots, bell peppers). Last night I sauteed chicken thighs (boneless and skinless) w/fresh soybean sprouts. Today made a huge pot of beef & barley chili and did a quick fry of beef tri- tip strips so I can use them with tortillas.
Joan - a happy belated birthday! Sounds like you had a fun and wonderful day.
BakerAunt - it's been a very long time since I roasted a whole chicken. And when I do, I often have to look online to find instructions how. When I do cook chicken, I'm usually cooking parts separately. I do want to try to roast a chicken eventually in a Bundt pan and see how it turns out.
I've been reading about baking this week more than baking, specifically "The Art of French Pastry", by Jacquy Pfeiffer, co-founder of The French Pastry School in Chicago. Next week I'm probably going to spend a day (or maybe two) practicing with choux paste.
This week I did a bit more baking - dug up an old recipe for Finnish rye bread (it was given to me by a coworker over 20 yrs ago) made only half recipe and baked it in my Dutch oven to give it a nicer artisan look. Also made KAF sourdough buns w/almond schmear with no icing, KAF 12-grain raisin sourdough loaves (I guess they no longer have the recipe online as they don't have the main ingredient - 12 grain flour) and I had substituted the grain flour with harvest grains. Also made ATK popovers to try to use up some milk and had them for lunch. Today I wanted to try to convert the KAF Sourdough cinnamon raisin bread into a vegan style - substituted the butter with vegan butter, added 2 tbsp potato flour instead of the one egg and just didn't brush the dough before putting the cinnamon filling down. I thought I would melt the vegan butter to brush it on but I couldn't tolerate the smell after melting it. Totally off-putting. Will be cutting a slice later tonight to see how it turned out.
I don't roast a whole chicken very often, most of the time I'll do two bone-in breasts, or sometimes leg quarters or thighs, depending on what's on sale and what looks good.
The last time I had a whole chicken it was one of those 7 pound monsters, so I chopped it in half and roasted half after liberally dosing it with herbs, especially rosemary, then made chicken stock with the other half and turned that into chicken noodle soup.
In the summertime, if I do a chicken I'll often do it outdoors on the rotisserie.
I have sometimes roasted a chicken on a bed of onions, I think they add flavor to the meat. I usually do it at 425 then.
For lunch today I roasted a turkey breast fillet and then sliced it up for sandwiches, this should last me 3-4 days. For supper I did a stir fry with some sirloin steak, after cutting off a 10 ounce piece, which we'll probably have on Monday. (Tomorrow I'm doing a beef tri-tip roast.)
I roasted a small chicken, not quite 4 pounds. I used a 9x13 ceramic dish (sprayed with Pam) and put a layer of small potatoes, cut in half, and baby carrots in the bottom. I rubbed them with a bit of olive oil and sprinkled a bit of salt and pepper, as well as some thyme and rosemary on them. I put the chicken on top. Following some internet recipes, I roasted it at 475F for 25 minutes, then 400F for 45. Next time, I'll start the chicken upside down, then turn it over so that the bottom gets browned. This time, I turned it over at the end for 5 minutes or so. The chicken tested done, so I put it on a platter to rest, covered, for 15 minutes. I stirred the vegetables and put them back in the oven for another 10-15 minutes. They were delicious. We had steamed green beans on the side, as the market had them for $1.29 a pound--much cheaper than broccoli, which was $1.05 more per pound.
My husband usually does the chickens, and he does it at a lower temperature for longer. It just does not get the browning, and IMHO the taste. The chicken I roasted did, but he worried about a little pinkness, (It tested done.) The meat was falling off the drumsticks. I told him he could do the next chicken, but I'm going to keep looking at recipes--especially those that let me cook a side vegetable or two at the same time.
This particular chicken was not one of those vacu-sealed in a tight wrapper, but was a flatter one wrapped on a meat tray. It did not seem to have as much liquid as the ones in those tight wrappers, but then those have been frozen.
So, how do other posters roast their chicken?
On Saturday, I baked the Honey Spelt Sourdough Bread, from the KAF website, in my Emile Henry long baker. I had some issues with rising, probably because the house was cool today but not cool enough to start a fire in the woodstove before evening. I don't think that I got as much rise as when I first baked it last fall. (I am now threatening to buy a bread proofer.) It should still make nice sandwiches.
On Friday, I have been busy in the kitchen. I fed my sourdough starter and used the discard to make a double recipe of the dough for my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers (recipe on this site). I'll bake them in a couple of days, since I think that they are better when the dough rests in the refrigerator for a couple of days.
I also baked Butterscotch Apple Sweet Rolls, a recipe from Sift (Fall 2015), p. 40, which is also on the KAF website. I first baked it at the end of November. I still had enough Jonathan apples in the refrigerator from fall to make the recipe again. This time, I used half white whole wheat flour and 1/4 cup of flax meal. As before, I used the special gold yeast. I'll glaze them tomorrow morning, and we will have several mornings of nice breakfasts. [Note: This recipe kneads beautifully on the dough cycle in the bread machine, which gives you a chance to start making the filling, so that it will be cool by the time the first rise is finished.]
My final project was to make the levain for the recipe for Honey Spelt Sourdough Bread, another recipe that I first tried last fall. It's on the KAF website and was also in one of their fall catalogs. I'll bake it tomorrow.
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This reply was modified 8 years, 2 months ago by BakerAunt.
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This reply was modified 8 years, 2 months ago by BakerAunt.
Happy belated birthday, Joan! Be sure to spend at least a week celebrating!
Tonight I made one of my stir-together dinners using a leftover pork chop from the three my husband cooked last night. I sautéed chopped yellow bell pepper and sliced mushrooms in a little grapeseed oil, then added the chopped pork, then the leftover mixed rice from last night, then the drippings from deglazing the pork skillet last night (used a bit of white wine and water). I added some frozen broccoli that I had briefly microwaved and a few dashes of low-sodium soy sauce. After removing from the heat, I sprinkled it with sliced green onion.
Moomies makes a good burger bun, but I think it isn't soft enough for a hot dog bun. I wish I could get Chicago-style hot dog buns (with poppy seeds) locally, though the KAF recipe is pretty close. (I can't get Vienna all beef hot dogs here, either.)
Tonight I roasted salmon. I grated fresh garlic, ginger (lots of ginger) and a little lemon zest, added some olive oil to it to make a paste and coated the salmon with it. Let it marinade for a couple of hours in the fridge before roasting. It was delicious.
Baked a loaf of whole wheat (50%) bread today, in a 3 strand braid.
For Wednesday's dinner, I made salmon with dill and couscous, paired with green beans (from frozen packet in freezer).
