Yesterday, I roasted a chicken, which I bought on Saturday, for dinner. Didn't do anything special, except actually take the time to baste it every thirty minutes, instead of wrapping it in foil and hoping that it'll get some color during the last bit of cooking when the foil is bravely removed.
I learned, though, that I really need a smaller roasting pan thing. Mine's huge. Like turkey sized, huge. To be, sort of, fair to myself, it was the only roasting pan they had when I bought it and I did, silly me, imagine serving turkey dinners. Still, I need to find one that's chicken sized. And I'd like it to be more rounded than square.
See the problem with having a large pan for a small, in comparison to the pan, bird is that all the juice that drips quickly dries. To have anything with which to baste, I have to continually add water to the pan and hope that it'll still be there the next time I pull the bird out of the oven. It's not that I can't do it; it's just an extra step that I'd like to avoid. Plus, a smaller roasting pan would actually fit into the sink comfortably while washing dishes.
Still, when all was over the chicken came out well. I sprinkled it with my favorite pre-mixed herb, lemon pepper, and shoved some lemons up its butt. I also did lemon pepper rice. It was all very nice.
Tonight, as is the next day tradition when there's a chicken carcass around, comes soup. Already the bones were boiled and picked clean of flesh. Soon the fat will be skimmed and the veggies added. But tonight, instead of noodles in my soup, I am going to attempt the dumpling.
After checking my two cookbook and some places on the 'net, I have found that there are two ways people cook the dumpling. Many drop the dough into the broth then cover and allow to cook. Others say to rest the dumpling dough on the chicken out of the broth so it gets more of a schvitz than a bath. I shall, of course, be dropping.
3 comments:
Sounds pretty tasty, hope that the chicken soup comes out well. I have a recipe for mexican tortilla soup if you are intersted in a recipe exchange.
How did it turn out? I've tried various types of dumplings, but I think I like the mayo ones the best. They were the fluffiest.
Matt -- It was very tasty.
As for recipe, I have no recipe for chicken soup. Here's how I do it:
1. Pull as much meat off the cooked chicken as possible. (I usually leave the stuff on the back, though.)
2. Put the bones and skin into a pot, cover with water, put a lid on it, bring to boil, down to medium-high heat and let go for at least an hour.
3. Pull bones and skin and other such stuff out of broth. (I strain it because it's faster.) Save any meat you left on the bones and toss it into the juice.
4. Get rid of as much fat as possible, especially since the skin leave a lot, along with its mighty flavor. (I let the broth cool in the fridge overnight so I can just scrape the fat off the next day.)
5. Heat the juice, salt 'n peppa to taste (I use a dash of cayenne along with the black), and add what you like to it. (My standard is: barley (something my mom did for texture, and should go in first since it takes a while to plump), celery (if I remember to buy it), carrots (see celery), and pour in frozen peas and corn (which I try to always have in the freezer, canned peas and corn are awful). Last night I used a bay leaf, expensive little buggers, and it made the flavor pop. Add noodles if you like or do the dumpling thing or do neither.)
Good luck and enjoy!
Geewits -- I used a butter dumpling recipe. Most of them turned out to be fluffy floaters with a few sinker. All were mightily delicious.
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