This month was no exception. They had a good article on roast chicken (I know, me? roast chicken?). And on how you can roast two chickens and eat for a week. It used to be that one chicken lasted us two weeks, but we were mostly vegetarian then. Now we are three people, and I've learned that it's easier to maintain my weight if I eat more meat, because I get less hungry. Too many carbs = hunger for me.
The recipe this month was for citrus roasted chicken. I did not buy two whole chickens and break them down myself as recommended. I did not buy two cut-up chickens from the farmer's market, at $23 each. I did buy two cut-up kosher chickens from Trader Joe's, at $10 each. Sometimes, you compromise.
I edited the recipe a bit. I generally don't buy whole lemons - my neighbor has a tree. In season, I pick 'em (with his permission), and then zest and juice them and freeze both in ice cube trays. So, I used 4 cubes of juice/zest. I didn't use oranges - I subbed our tangerines from our tree out back. I also didn't read the recipe until 2:30 pm, so the chicken didn't get the recommended 6-12 hours of marinating (only got two). I also edited the cooking temp/time for my oven, and for the fact that I forgot to reduce the temp. It was still quite tasty.
Citrus roasted chicken
2 chickens, cut into 8 pieces each (legs, wings, thighs, breasts)
4 Tbsp olive oil
4 cubes of lemon juice/zest (about 1/3 to 1/2 cup)
3 tangerines. Zest and juice two and slice the third.
8 cloves garlic, pressed
3 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 Tbsp honey
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
S&P to taste
Mix the lemon juice, tangerine juice and zest, garlic, soy sauce, red pepper flakes, and honey.
Place the olive oil in a roasting pan large enough for all the chicken to lay without overlapping (I use my turkey roaster). Swirl it around. Place the chicken in the pan. Pour over the marinade. Cover with plastic and refrigerate up to 12 hours, but two will do if that's what you've got. Or 1/2 hour. I don't know.
Preheat oven to 425F. When ready, turn chicken to skin side up and add salt and pepper. Roast for 45 mins at 425F. The skin is supposed to get brown. Mine didn't really, and that's with doubling the recommended time at 425F. Reduce heat to 375F and cook 15 more minutes. My oven is low and slow, so I always need to up the recommended baking/cooking time. Just saying. YMMV.
I served this with fried potatoes and kale chips. Gotta have the messy kale chips the night before the cleaning person comes.
The leftovers are destined for chicken salad sandwiches, chicken and bean burritos, and maybe some chicken fried rice. I saved some of the pan juices. They recommend risotto, but I'll probably go with the fried rice.
I also started the day by trying out cinnamon raisin swirl bread from the same issue. Again, my house is on the cool side, so even with extra time on the stove top with the stove on warm, it didn't quite rise like I wanted it to, so the bread is a little bit dense. But still delicious. Should freeze a loaf so it doesn't go bad.
The recipe calls for using the stand mixer, so it really wasn't that hard. I started at 7 am and was done at 11 am. Next time I might try the bread machine though.
