Malleable Reality

I’ve been cooking a lot of chickens lately and I love it.  So this Back to Basics post will be dedicated to the process I take to make a delicious chicken and what I do with the leftovers!

To start:

We have a chicken that came from Clover Patch Farm via the 4 Season Harvest Buying Club (which I’ve previously blogged about here).  This was somewhat of a smaller chicken than what we were used to, but it still had lots of meat!  This, and all of the chickens we get from the farm, are Freedom Rangers (by choice).

Freedom Rangers are free range, and raised on pasture.  They grow slower than the Cornish Cross breed and have bigger legs/thighs due to the exercise they get during their lives by being free range. (Hah, that was my very brief explanation).

*ABOVE: I’m not sure why the chicken looks dark in some areas like in the wings & towards the top of the chicken (right hand side) — it wasn’t this color in person, it must have just been the lighting.*

First step was to cut off the neck, which comes attached!  This time I did this part all by myself, without the help of my boyfriend who is usually the neck-cutter. I was very proud of myself!

Next, rinse the chicken thoroughly in cold water and pat dry.

Preheat oven to 475 degrees. 

Drizzle oil onto the bottom of pan to start, then place chicken in the pan. 

Season the chicken by rubbing with oil of choice (just don’t use those rancid vegetable oils!) and adding spices/herbs of choice.  This could include any combination that you like.  I tend to use any of the following: Basil, parsley, rosemary, thyme, oregano, and salt & pepper.  I rub the chicken with these seasonings on all sides.  I also juice a lemon and pour the fresh squeezed lemon juice over the chicken, but that is optional.  I put half of the lemon (sliced up) in the cavity, along with some farm fresh/grass-fed butter, about a quarter of an onion (chopped), and all of the seasonings that I used for the skin of the chicken.

 At this point, I chop up the rest of the onion to place in the pan, around the chicken, along with any vegetables I want to add for dinner that night.  I like: red potatoes, zucchini, carrots, celery (mix & match).  Other vegetables also work fine, just use whatever you like!

Oh, back to the farm fresh/grass-fed butter! I put about a 1/2 tablespoon to 1 tablespoon of butter under the skin of the chicken, just between the meat and skin at all 4 corners of the breast (at the top and the bottom end of each breast).  you’ll have to separate the skin from the breast a bit with your fingers but it’s not a big deal…just slide your fingers under the skin.

Roast the chicken at 475 degrees, uncovered, for about 45 minutes.  (It could need more or less time depending on the size of the chicken).  This step is to brown the skin a bit and to get it to be a little crisp.

Remove pan from the oven and lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees.  Add 1 cup of water to the pan (maybe 2 if needed — personal opinion).  *Picture below*

Cover pan and place back into oven for an additional hour and a half, depending on the size of the chicken.  Sometimes I leave it in a bit longer.  I use a meat thermometer to double check to make sure it’s completely done.

Next, I take the chicken out of the oven and allow it to sit for about 10 minutes.  This allows the juices to settle within the chicken. 

And without ever basting, you will have the most tender, moist, and delicious chicken ever.  It is seriously. so. good. 

The first time I made a freedom ranger chicken (this exact same way), I made homemade gravy to go with it, and we ended up not even using the gravy because the meat was so good alone.

At the bottom of the pan will be the delicious juice that came from the chicken (obviously cooked with the vegetables and all of the seasonings used to cook the chicken).  DO NOT WASTE THIS!  It is so, so good.  I put this in a container to be used when making other chicken meals (leftovers from the chicken we just made), add it to soups, rice, mashed potatoes.  ANYTHING that you want to add some extra flavor to (in an easy and healthy way…throw out the boxed, processed stuff.  You don’t need it when your cooking with the drippings from the chicken!)

This small container lasts longer than I originally thought it would because I only need to use about a tablespoon at a time/per meal.  It solidifies and becomes gelatinous/jell-like (rather than the liquid that’s pictured here.  This picture was from before it was refrigerated), due to the gelatin from the chicken.  This is the good stuff.

As far as the left over meat:  We’ve gotten anywhere from 6 to 9 meals out of any given chicken. Just look at how much chicken is here after I took all of the meat of of the bones (I tried to separate the dark meat from the white meat):

And this is after we’ve already eaten our dinner for that night!

Granted, there’s just two of us (my boyfriend & myself), but it still impresses me!  This chicken was the smallest chicken we’ve had thus far, at 3.75 pounds, and it still made 9 meals.  NINE MEALS FOR TWO PEOPLE!  At $4.39 per pound, this particular chicken cost us $16.46.  That’s $1.82 per meal (for the chicken, not including vegetables or any sides I make), which comes to only $0.91 per person, per meal of chicken.  Awesome?? YES!

I separate the meat into smaller portions (enough for a meal for two) and wrap them up separately.  I put the individual packages into the freezer and have quick, easy, and delicious meals ready to be taken out of the freezer, defrosted and heated up for dinner again.  I do all kinds of things with the left over meat, but our favorites have been: Chicken over mashed potatoes (with sides of vegetables that we choose at the time) along with some of the drippings from the chicken that was saved as well, or a stir-fry with either rice, noodles, and/or vegetables of choice.  We love it.

And lastly, because we don’t like to waste any of this awesome chicken, I do not throw out the bones!!  I use those to make chicken stock for soups.  If I do not make the stock right away, I freeze the bones to be used for stock at a later time.  I’ll post about making stock in a future Back to Basics post! (This is important part of the chicken process!)

That’s all for now, but I hope this post inspired someone, anyone, to go out and get a farm fresh, Freedom Ranger and try this!