Posts tagged #cook

Cooking a whole chicken. Excuse me if you "don't eat no meat!"

Today is the first time I bought and am going to bake a whole chicken; skin, bones and all. I asked my facebook fans for advice and some chimed in with amazing recipes and tips:

" I like stuffing mine with lemon and thyme and roasting with root veggies around it."
"Use plenty of fresh herbs and put lemons on the bottom of the pan. Also, I cook mine at a higher temperature to get it crispy. 400 degrees for an hour."
Simple recipe where they do not use butter: Her advice "watch out for your smoke detector b/c of the high temp... Also get twine and truss it! (this video is helpful)"
Herb Roasted Chicken Recipe
"Boil it and make chicken noodle soup. Its easy, just labor intensive. "
" I like to have a thin layer of water on the bottom of the pan too - keeps it moist and baste, baste, baste!"
"Stuff it with lemon. Put sea salt, fresh ground pepper and a little bit of olive oil on top."
"I was scared the first time I cooked a whole chicken too but it's super easy. I use Ina Garten's recipe. Also I don't eat the skin (and I'm guessing you don't either) so I cook it breast side down and it stays super moist!"
Roast Chicken Magic, their secret is Citrus!

I have decided to cook my chicken tomorrow because I will not get home until 7:30 tonight and my chicken will not be ready until 8:30pm, which is kinda late for me. Because I have the chicken today, but am not going to cook until tomorrow, I am thinking about brining the chicken in order to make it super moist. Have you ever tried this? Does it work?

I am looking forward to my adventure today when I brine, and tomorrow when I cook. I have no problem (usually) eating a nice cleaned chicken breast, but when it comes to touching the raw chicken it kinda grosses me out... anyone else?! EW I am flinching just thinking about it. I have to over come my fear of raw chicken and cook it. I am going to cook it like a CHAMP!

One of my favorite movie scenes from My Big Fat Greek Wedding! Skip to 4:15 for the "eat no meat" reference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3N5V9ml2VU

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Brandon Bettencourt and filed under food, entree, savory and tagged chicken entree dinner meat cook cooking recipe savory.

root vegetables galore

My mom once made this baked root vegetable dish, and it was quite awesome. Today we spent the morning together and decided to go to Russo's (an amazing produce place in Watertown, MA) and get everything we needed to make the "Root Vegetable Galore"!

Ingredients: (pictured from left to right)

parsnips (eh it was OK)
sweet potato
jicama (never baked it, but SO good!!)
carrots
turnips
celery root
beets
fingerling potatoes
kohlrabi (forgot to get in "root vegetable shot", but separate image is down below)
garlic
onion
EVOO
salt and pepper
rosemary (optional)

directions:

pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
peel and wash vegetables (no need to peel fingerling potatoes)
cut vegetables into cubes ( not too small, cut the beets a little smaller as they usually take longer to cook)
cut onions into small slivers
peel garlic and keep whole
cover everything with EVOO, add salt and pepper to taste. Mix around to make sure all is coated *when it comes to the beets, mix them in a separate container, then add to the mixture. Beets will discolor everything!
place vegetables, onions and garlic on a large baking pan and spread out

bake at 400 degrees for about an hour. Mix around vegetables every 25 minutes. Each oven cooks differently, so use your own digression. Vegetables should be tender and delicious! ENJOY!

Below we have kohlrabi. I have never cooked with this vegetable before, but it is great!