Tuesday 15 January 2008

1 recipe completed: Roast Chicken (page 36)

Today is chicken day: the recipe of the book. It's currently in the oven doing its high-heat for 15 minutes thing. I would have smeared the butter all over said bird, but it was a straight choice between leaving lumps of butter everywhere and scraping the skin off with it, so I've more part-smeared, part-placed the butter on it. And I had a lemon crisis until I found one hiding in the fridge. I would go to the local shops for one, but the town I live in is currently gridlocked, and there's a 2 mile traffic jam and a half-hour run between the chicken and my car. But at least I got a run in today; and tomorrow, to retrieve the car... weight is holding steady at 167.6lbs; food so far is 1 bowl SpecialK with milk, 2 SpecialK bars, 1 bag baked crisps, 1 soup with small roll. I considered eating one of my leftover birthday cakes but got distracted by work; by the time I remembered, the boys had saved me from having to make the decision to eat chocolate or not (none of them have the decency to get fat on a chips and chocolate diet, which is truly deeply annoying sometimes). But I had 5 small bad chocolates from a box at home later...

Anyways, one chicken. Which was with 200g of the correct weight for the recipe, and I had exactly enough butter in the cupboard too. The only worry is that I forgot to put any salt on when I seasoned it. Until recently, there was no salt in the house; a combination of arthritis and supposedly healthy living kept it at bay, and sometimes I forget to use it. Right now, its starting to smell gorgeous, and it's only been cooking for 15 minutes...

...and now it's done. And eaten. The chicken was truly excellent. When I pulled it out, I looked at the shrivelled legs and thought I'd massively overcooked it, but it was plump and firm, and lemony-herby without being citric. I don't usually eat just meat, but I could happily have just had a plate of this chicken. Although I didn't of course: I served it with fresh peas and a little bit of leek. Peas and well-cooked chicken: mmmm.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oh yum. That sounds gorgeous. I think roast chicken likes chips too but that might have been a diet breach too far. The delicacy of the lemony, herby flavours is most enticing.