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Ready for another suggestion in cooking whole chickens 101? My mom had 8 kids in 10 years and was the mistress of frugality and making food go further than seemed possible. She makes the BEST chicken stew (a very close relative to Acadian chicken fricot if you ask me) in the entire universe and it all starts with a whole chicken.
Ready for another suggestion in cooking whole chickens 101? My mom had 8 kids in 10 years and was the mistress of frugality and making food go further than seemed possible. She makes the BEST chicken stew (a very close relative to Acadian chicken fricot if you ask me) in the entire universe and it all starts with a whole chicken.
While some people love the drumsticks the most, it can be
tricky to make the most of the meat on the legs after it’s roasted, on the
bird. The same goes for the wings, if
left on the bird for roasting. So if you
want to get every last ounce of meat from those bonier bits, why not sacrifice
them from the roast and make chicken stew?
It starts by cutting one or both drum sticks off the
uncooked chicken, to the first joint so that the thigh is still in place. Next, cut the wings off, to the joint between
the wing and drumette. (It’s easy if
you’re not timid to manhandle it a bit.
A little knife work to cut through the meat and then a good crack with
your hands makes it a quick job.)
The rest of the chicken can go into the oven like a regular
roast.
The wings, drumstick(s) and neck go into a pot, with just
enough water to cover them. (If you’ve
got some accessories like carrots, onions and celery, this is a good time to
add those too.) Simmer it all together
for a couple hours until you can reach in with a fork and basically pull out
the skin and bones, leaving the most tender bits of meat behind, sitting in a
bath of the tastiest broth on earth.
(Some like to strain it all to ensure no small bones or mushy veggies
are left in.) Don’t underestimate how much meat is on the neck and how
flavourful it is. (tip to parents: little kids fingers are especially deft at
stripping the meat from those tricky little bones and they love being
useful-make the most of it!)
From here you can build the rest of the recipe to your
specs. I usually just toss in whatever
hearty vegetables and appropriate herbs I have around, however much water it will take to cook those and let it all party in
the pot together until it smells like heaven and tastes even better.
By now, the roast chicken has likely been through one or two
meals and there may not be enough meat left on it to try to get a whole other
meal, so you can add any leftover from there to the stew pot as well.
I realize this is really basic chicken cooking and for you
seasoned cooks out there, is a waste of reading time, but everyone likes to get
the most for their money and this is guaranteed to be one of the best ways to
have the least amount of waste.
Pair this stew up with some of my Mom’s homemade bread, with
farm fresh butter and molasses and I am in my happiest of places.
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There is a chance that by now you may have accumulated a few chicken wings, if you've opted to cut up your chicken or ordered cut-ups. I know it's always the last piece to get used up around here, mostly because it takes a number of them to really make a meal.
Well tonight I had the wings from three fresh chickens that I wanted to try a new recipe with. It was so simple that I hardly trusted it to be very good, but it was amazing.
First, how to make wings from those sharp floppy bits you get when you order a cut-up.
Step one: I like to use my kitchen shears to cut the tip off. There's not much meat on it, so I usually either discard it or keep it to make stock. (You can just toss them in a bag and freeze them until stock-making time.) You just want to cut/hack your way through the first joint between the wing tip and the wing itself.
Next, I slice through the skin at the 'elbow' until I hit bone.
Now,
bend the two sections backwards until the bone pops out and you can cut
easily between the joints. Now you should have a drumette and a wing.
(Note: with a sharp enough knife you could just hack through the joint,
but this way ensures that there are no bone shards or loose bits of
bone hanging around.)
So the recipe:
-3 lbs of wings (the great thing about our chickens is that it takes way fewer wings to make 3 lbs than typical wings, since there's so much meat on them!)
-1/3 cup honey
-1/2 cup soy sauce (a GMO-free version would be Bragg's Soy Seasoning and it has way more flavour, so you only need about a 1/4 cup or so. It can be found in the health food section of your grocery store. It's a safe assumption that most soy sauce is made from GMO soy, so be sure by using Braggs.) If you do use Bragg's or less liquid, compensate with some water to make enough sauce.
-6 cloves of garlic, minced. (I didn't have 6, so only used 4, but they were good and strong.)
-1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
Mix the sauce and marinate the wings in it for at least an hour.
Line a baking sheet with foil (maybe double-it's sticky!).
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Place wings on baking sheet and cook for 35-40 minutes, basting every 10 minutes with sauce.
Meanwhile, simmer remaining sauce until thickened.
Once wings are cooked, pour thickened sauce over them and let sit until cool enough to eat.
Mark, who is a bit of a wing connoisseur, could not believe how good these were. They actually tasted like chicken, rather than just being vehicles for wing sauce. haha. Anyway, they were gobbled up so quickly I just barely caught a picture of them before they were all gone. I plan on making a giant batch of these and freezing some to have ready to pop into the oven when I need them.
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There is a chance that by now you may have accumulated a few chicken wings, if you've opted to cut up your chicken or ordered cut-ups. I know it's always the last piece to get used up around here, mostly because it takes a number of them to really make a meal.
Well tonight I had the wings from three fresh chickens that I wanted to try a new recipe with. It was so simple that I hardly trusted it to be very good, but it was amazing.
First, how to make wings from those sharp floppy bits you get when you order a cut-up.
Step one: I like to use my kitchen shears to cut the tip off. There's not much meat on it, so I usually either discard it or keep it to make stock. (You can just toss them in a bag and freeze them until stock-making time.) You just want to cut/hack your way through the first joint between the wing tip and the wing itself.
So the recipe:
-3 lbs of wings (the great thing about our chickens is that it takes way fewer wings to make 3 lbs than typical wings, since there's so much meat on them!)
-1/3 cup honey
-1/2 cup soy sauce (a GMO-free version would be Bragg's Soy Seasoning and it has way more flavour, so you only need about a 1/4 cup or so. It can be found in the health food section of your grocery store. It's a safe assumption that most soy sauce is made from GMO soy, so be sure by using Braggs.) If you do use Bragg's or less liquid, compensate with some water to make enough sauce.
-6 cloves of garlic, minced. (I didn't have 6, so only used 4, but they were good and strong.)
-1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
Mix the sauce and marinate the wings in it for at least an hour.
Line a baking sheet with foil (maybe double-it's sticky!).
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Place wings on baking sheet and cook for 35-40 minutes, basting every 10 minutes with sauce.
Meanwhile, simmer remaining sauce until thickened.
Once wings are cooked, pour thickened sauce over them and let sit until cool enough to eat.
Mark, who is a bit of a wing connoisseur, could not believe how good these were. They actually tasted like chicken, rather than just being vehicles for wing sauce. haha. Anyway, they were gobbled up so quickly I just barely caught a picture of them before they were all gone. I plan on making a giant batch of these and freezing some to have ready to pop into the oven when I need them.
The
vacuum packer has arrived, so as soon as we get bags, we'll be in the
business of seriously selling pieces and you can make your own version
of organic wings anytime you want! Price list coming soon.
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