Last Saturday, February 1, 2014 I had the incredible
opportunity to cook with a group of Moms.
We get together about once a year, spearheaded by my good friend Barb
who “mentors” the group. Actually, I
think it’s just a reason to get together and have fun!( By the way the “official” name of the group is Koinonia a
Biblical Greek word meaning Christian community). We needed to get together; West
Michigan has been under a “polar vortex” which translates to – Michigan
Winter! It has been cold, dreary, and
little sunshine! Of course we were under
blizzard warnings – but only got 6” of snow!
Not enough to stop us ladies from getting together!
We cook together; simple food, fun food and satisfying
food. There are lots of laughs and this
time a few tears due to a personal loss of a member’s mother but we had hugs
all around – smiles all around – sharing all around.
I’ll admit, it’s not easy to please everybody in this crowd,
there are a ton of food likes, dislikes, and the occasional, “I’m not touching
that!” The goal is to introduce a few great ideas, and talk about ways to help
busy moms with food!
This year, I became a bit brave, and reached out to my
friends at Tecumseh Smart Chicken and Susan Boeck! I was hoping for a few magazines, or an
apron, or well I’m not really good at asking for donations. Susan is a very warm hearted individual, and
her company, well they donated all of the chicken!
It came packed, on ice, in two big boxes, and to say the
least, I was doing happy yippy skippy dances!
What an opportunity to showcase how important knowing where your food
comes from, and that humanely raised poultry is available.
Our Menu was easy:
Warm Goat Cheese with pepper jelly & crackers
Spinach Salad with pomegranate, grapes, and avocado, and
home made lemon vinaigrette
Lemon Rosemary Roasted whole chickens
Roasted Root Vegetables
and Truffles (though I will admit, they didn’t set up in
time, and we ate them by the spoonful!)
Roasting a whole chicken is sometimes daunting to
people. I know that a lot of chef’s work
at this “simple” meal to perfect it over a lifetime.
I took the time to brine my chicken, though with the Smart
Chicken, I probably wouldn’t have had to.
It’s important once you take the chicken out of a brine (or any other
cut of meat) to dry it off, otherwise you’ll steam the chicken! I like crispy skin!
I showed the group how to remove the wishbone before
roasting, and we talked about how that makes it easier for carving – a trick
that I used in culinary school!
We then stuffed it with a lemon, cut in half (after we
removed the zest and some of the juice for our salad dressing) added some fresh
rosemary, trussed them up, placed them on top of some celery to raise them off
the cookie sheet, drizzled them with extra virgin olive oil (evoo), salt and
pepper then put them in a 400 degree
oven. Normally, I’d probably roast them
at a little lower temperature, but these birds were huge, and I was hungry!
We then got to cutting up root vegetables including potatoes,
parsnips, onions, carrots and sweet potatoes.
We then layered them on sheet pans with a bit of evoo and salt and
pepper and into the ovens they went.
Root veggies tend to caramelize and the sugars come out, and well you
sometimes don’t need much more!
Onto the salad we went, opening a pomegranate, mixing up a
fresh vinaigrette, and showing how to open up an avocado! All in the guise of having fun, but learning
a bit.
It wasn’t long before we started smelling the chicken. It takes about 15 minutes per pound, so we
had about 5 pound chickens – about 1 hour and they were done! You can check the doneness several ways; an
internal meat thermometer at 165°, or the juices running clear, or the
drumstick wiggles! We did all three!
The hard part, letting it rest before we got to
carving! About 15 minutes, a very long
15 minutes I might add!
I showed them how to carve a chicken, and let anyone who
wanted to learn, get at it! Sometimes
you just got to dig in, and “hack away” to learn how!
Once it was done, and we placed them on a platter, we pulled
out the veggies, got the salad ready, said grace, (by my good friend Barb – a
lovely grace it was!) and then we got down to business! Eating chicken.
It was pretty funny though, everyone had to “pick” a bit of
chicken before it got to the table!
All in all a great chicken dinner!
Chicken
Brine
|
½ cup
|
Kosher Salt
|
|
¼ cup
|
Brown Sugar
|
|
5 cups
|
Cold water
|
|
8
|
Garlic cloves peeled,
diced
|
|
2
|
Cups orange juice
|
|
2
|
Quarts ice water
|
|
1
|
Spanish onion
|
Place salt,
sugar, 2 cups of cold water, garlic and bay leaf in sauce pan. Bring just to a boil to dissolve the sugar
and salt, turn off the heat. Add the
onion, oj, and cups of water. Remove from stove, and add the container with
ice water. Mix well, cool until it
reaches 40 degrees. Rinse your chicken
with cold water, and dry (this is to remove bacteria and such) place the
chicken in a large enough container to hold the brine and the chicken, a small
cooler, or a Stock Pot. When the brine
has cooled, pour over the chicken, you may need a weight to keep it
covered! Keep in the brine for 12 – 24
hours. Remove chicken, and discard the
brine. Dry the chicken thoroughly.
Roast with
your favorite seasonings.
If you don’t have room in your refrigerator, use a beverage
cooler for your brine/chicken! Works
wonderful!
Roast the Chicken in a 350 – 400 degree oven for 15 minutes
per pound, until it reaches an internal temperature of 165. Remove from oven and let rest for 15
minutes! Loosely cover with aluminum
foil if you wish.
Roasted Root Vegetables – 1 – 2 veggies per person!
Assorted Veggies:
Carrots
rutabagas
turnips
parsnips
sweet potatoes
potatoes
Cut into large, uniform dices
2 – 3 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper
Toss the veggies in the EVOO and spread on a cookie
sheet. Roast with the chicken for
approximately 45 minutes, until fork tender,
Having “grown-up” in the corporate world for over 25 years,
I remember with some dread the infamous team building events. Remember the “let’s fall backwards into
somebody’s arms, or the “yes everyone golf’s” and “really, we’re going to play
“who is that character posted on my back so I can get to know you?” 
