Recipe: A Chicken Weekend

Roasted chicken in the oven.

This weekend, I dub thee: weekend of the chicken. Why? Well, it seems that I was up to my ears in cooking chicken! It all started on Thursday when I got my new Paleo cookbooks (hooray!), and each of them had a simple recipe for roasted chicken, as well as a simple recipe for bone broth, from the chicken carcass. Suddenly, I got obsessed with cooking a roast chicken. I'd never done it before! Literally, it's all I could think about. So, Friday afternoon I stopped at the market on my way home and got a 4 pound chicken, carrots, celery, onions, and lemon. Saturday afternoon, since we were going to be home all day, around 11am, I took a deep breath, unleashed the chicken, and got to work. Know what? It was so easy! I put coconut oil in the pan; I spread chopped onions and carrots down, and then threw the chicken on top. Spread a little coconut oil on the chicken, and covered with salt and pepper (and some Bragg's seasoning). I stuffed the chicken with lemon wedges, garlic, and onions. At 375 degrees, they say that for every pound of chicken, it's 20 minutes in the oven...and "they" weren't wrong! I happened to have a meat thermometer (ah, the things you buy and think you'll never use), and at 80 minutes, I checked my chicken, and it was 170 degrees (165 is safe for chicken). I let it go about 10 minutes more, then turned off the oven.

Guess what? It was delicious! Even my father-in-law said so, and he wouldn't lie to me just to be nice, right? Ha, well, it was moist, and flavorful...and between my father-in-law and I, we demolished the thing (to be fair, he had a totally normal portion size, and I didn't...).

After I finished off the chicken, I threw the carcass, the veggies, and the juice into a pot, filled it with water, added a little apple cider vinegar, and let it simmer on low for 4 hours. Couldn't be easier! It was so full of flavor....I can't wait to make it again! It made 3 mason jars full, and I had one of them later that weekend with spaghetti squash (ala chicken noodle soup).

But, that wasn't the end of the chicken weekend. One of Eric's favorite meals I make is Chicken and Dumplings, and he requested it for when his dad was here last weekend. I always follow this recipe, and it always turns out great (I assume, I've never tried it!). The menfolk had it with green beans and I made homemade corn bread.

Chicken, you are so delicious and versatile. I can't wait to do more with you!

(You all talk to your food, too, right? Right?)