My Basic Chicken Philosophy
We eat chicken a lot in my house. I roast a chicken at least once a week. It is easy to make and serves so many purposes. I feel very efficient in my ability to nourish my family when I roast a chicken. Not only do we get to enjoy delicious and succulent meat with a chicken stock based sauce, I get to use the remains to add to my Instant Pot to produce nourishing stock. When it comes time to throw out the bones from my brew, I crumble the very soft portions of bone in my fingers and feed that along with the marrow to my dogs. They absolutely go crazy for it. (I only give them what I can crumble into granules; anything larger than tiny sand-like pieces and they could get cut internally from sharp pieces).
This is how I approach chicken:
- As often as possible I marinate it overnight in some sort of white wine mixture, preferably something that will make great flavor added to chicken stock for the sauce. If I don't have the time, I pour a bit of white wine over it and also into the cavity.
- I always cover the skin in melted butter and throw an onion and/or lemons inside the cavity. Certainly toss on some salt and pepper and in the oven it goes. Super easy.
- I make a sauce or gravy. Sometimes this may simply consist of boiling bone broth until it reduces to a thicker liquid, and adding soy sauce for some extra flavor. If I have more time, I add some other goodies, like garlic and lemon juice, herbs and spices.
- Once we have thoroughly enjoyed the roasted bird, I save the leftover bones, organs and scraps in a plastic freezer bag to make soup stock in the future, or add it to my Instant Pot immediately.
- Any leftover meat I use to make soup, salad or just reheat with the leftover sauce.
Sometimes I buy a chicken from the store. If there is a butcher on site, I request that it be cut into eight pieces. This makes the marinating more effective, I believe, and also separates the back from the rest of the pieces which I usually stick in the freezer for later use to make broth.
If you try your hand at making your own bone broth, be sure to add a bit of apple cider vinegar to aid in drawing out the minerals. Nourishing Traditions speaks extensively about bone broths, and also contains my favorite chicken recipe called Moroccan Chicken. Pick it up if you don't have a copy and you may never return to your Standard American Diet again!
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