Simple Roast Chicken
Who doesn't like Roast Chicken, right? It's one of my Hubby's favorite meals. He says that he could eat it everyday! I don't do anything fancy to it, I don't even truss the legs and stuff and I usually don't stuff it ;o) My mother rarely made it for us when I was growing up, but when she did, it was such a treat! She turned it a little Japanese by stuffing it with Ketchup Fried Rice...lol I know that sounds a little odd and gross, but it is very tasty! It seems that most of my favorite meals are comfort foods from my childhood.
I got this chicken from the Butcherettes that I've been raving about, Lindy & Grundy. They are seriously the nicest ladies that you can ever meet! This was only my second time at their store and they remembered me! They even said they'd give me a tour of the meat locker next time I come in. I know it doesn't sound that exciting, but I love getting tours of the kitchens at restaurants and I've never been in a butcher's meat locker and there, I may get to see half of a steer! The closest I've come was going inside the dry aging chamber of a steak place near us called Wolfgang's:o) Oh, I've also been in the meat locker at Lawry's restaurant too! It's customer service like that that will keep me coming back! It just makes you feel special when store owners and restaurant people remember that you've been there before. It's sad, but such a rarity nowadays.
The chicken was only about 2 1/2 lbs, what chickens are supposed to be!! Why is it that at the grocery store you can't find a chicken that is under 4 lbs?? Some are even 5 lbs, and they are frying chickens not roasters. The taste of this was much nicer than a normal chicken too.
Chicken w/Feet & Neck...
I was so happy to see that the feet were still attached when I got it home! I would have been ecstatic if the head was still attached too...lol But I was happy with just the neck. I love adding feet and neck when I make stock, it adds extra unctuousness to it! The stock is even better when I use all the roasted bones too. I'm going to have a separate bag of bones in the freezer from L&G chickens... I chopped up the other chicken and froze it.
Feet & Necks...
There's a place in Chinatown where they have live chickens and they slaughter them right there at their store. Those chickens have both their feet & head! When you take the chicken home, it's still body temperature warm;o) It's just a little bit of a pain to drive down there for me, so I'm glad that L&G is only 15 mins away from me!
Seasoned...
I don't usually brine my chickens in salt water anymore, it's much easier to "dry brine" it. There's a restaurant called the Hitching Post II about an hour away from Santa Barbara that was featured in the movie SIDEWAYS, I actually talked about it in my very first food post on my blog. I love their seasoning called "Magic Dust" and always have some on hand. I buy their product, but add some more of my own seasonings to it and use it on just about everything I make. I gave some to my sister-in-law in Japan and now she can't live without it too...lol...it's that good;o)
The chicken has the "Magic Dust", salt, fresh ground pepper, ajishio, & olive oil. I try to season it at least a few hours ahead of time.
Ketchup Fried Rice
I know that this sounds very odd, but it's so good! It's something that kids in Japan grow up with. It's usually in a dish called "Omu Raisu"...Omelette Rice. It's the fried rice that's covered in a thin egg omelette and served with ketchup on top. The ketchup is "cooked", so the rice doesn't taste ketchupy. If you ever saw the Japanese movie TAMPOPO, they had the OmuRice in that. It was the scene where the homeless man sneaks into a restaurant kitchen with a little boy to make him something to eat.
I'm not sure why they started using ketchup like that in Japan, but they also have another dish called Spaghetti Napolitan. The simple version is spaghetti sauted w/ham or even sliced hot dogs with ketchup...lol It's really a child's dish, but I still crave it sometimes;o) It's just not the same if you use real spaghetti sauce!
I'm not sure why they started using ketchup like that in Japan, but they also have another dish called Spaghetti Napolitan. The simple version is spaghetti sauted w/ham or even sliced hot dogs with ketchup...lol It's really a child's dish, but I still crave it sometimes;o) It's just not the same if you use real spaghetti sauce!
To make the fried rice I sauted onions & garlic w/salt, pepper, dashi powder, & ajishio. After the onions softened, I added the rice and mixed that up then added just a little ketchup and stir-fried that then finished it off with soy sauce. I let this all cool down to room temp before stuffing it in the chicken. I didn't want us to get salmonella poisoning or something;o)
Peeled Celery
I like to peel celery to get the stringy fibers off of it.
Tip for Celery...
I read this tip in Cook's Illustrated years ago to make celery last. I wash and trim the celery (I don't peel until I'm going to use it) then place a paper towel on top of foil then wrap all the celery up in that and then put it into a large baggie and refrigerate it. The celery can last up to two weeks this way!
Veggies!
I roasted celery, zucchini & carrots with the chicken. It's seasoned with the same stuff as the chicken including the olive oil. Since the chicken was so small it took less than 1 hour to make it. I go by the color of the skin to see if it's done, but I do also use a temp probe;o)
Roasted Veggies...
I added the veggies the last 30 mins of cooking, so it wouldn't be mushy.
Roast Chicken!
After the rice is cooked inside the chicken it gets the nice flavor of the chicken juices and doesn't look so orange;o) After stuffing it, I did use a prong to seal it up, so the rice wouldn't fall out while it was cooking. I'll confess to my most favorite part of the chicken..the tail, it's called Bonbochi in Japanese and I think that American's sometimes call it the Pope's Nose;o) What's your fav part??
