Basic Roast Chicken with bonus recipe!

Autumn is juuuuuust around the corner, and despite it still being plenty warm here in the upper Midwest, I’m craving oven-baked meals and soups. The other day I remembered that I had a 5lb whole chicken from a friend in the freezer, so I thought it was time to roast it. There are myriad recipes out there for roasting a whole chicken, and I love the fancy ones, like Samin Nosrat’s Buttermilk-Brined Chicken, which I’ll probably make sometime soon. But, I wanted simple for a weeknight. So I went for Jacques Pepin’s Basic Roast Chicken that I found on New York Times Cooking (subscription required, but totally worth it). This was probably the best roast chicken I’ve ever made. Hence, I’m sharing it with you. Now, the bird I had was 5 pounds. Most from the store will be smaller. The instructions I give will be for a 3 1/2 pound bird, so I actually baked mine twice as long as what will be written here. This guide from The Spruce Eats will help you too!

And, below the chicken recipe, there’s a bonus recipe for a quick chicken stock using the carcass!

Basic Roast Chicken a la Jacques Pepin

Ingredients:

1 3 1/2 pound whole chicken
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Season the bird with salt and pepper, both in the cavity and on the skin. Stand the chicken on its side in an oven-safe dish; a cast iron skillet is ideal for this.
Put pan in the oven for 20 minutes, then take out and flip the bird onto the other side. Roast for another 20 minutes. After those 40 minutes, place the bird on its back, baste with the cooking juices, and roast for another 10 minutes.
Use a thermometer to check that the meat has reached 165 degrees, and if so, cut and serve!

(Note from the original recipe: by cooking the chicken on its sides, the juices stay in the breast and, since only the back is exposed, the chicken does not need constant basting.)

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I served this with sauteed veggies and a glass of Claret. It felt very upscale and classy for a weeknight!

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Bonus Quick Chicken Stock!

Ingredients:

1-2 chicken carcasses
1 onion, quartered
2 celery ribs, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
1 head of garlic, halved crosswise
1/4 tsp black peppercorns
2 thyme sprigs
8 parsley sprigs including long stems
4 quarts filtered water

Over high heat, bring all ingredients to a boil in a large stockpot. Once boiling, reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 2-3 hours.
Strain stock through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl. If you want to, skim off the excess fat (I don’t typically). Otherwise, pour into jars and chill. This will keep in the fridge for a few days, but if you don’t plan to use it within that time, it can be frozen for a few months!

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So, I hadn’t intended to make stock last night, but I’m really glad I did. As you can see in the picture, I got 3 quarts plus a mug for me to sip on before bed. It.was.awesome.

I’m really excited to use this stock. It tasted better than any I’ve made in the past. Might have had something to do with the ridiculously simple chicken recipe I used. Who knows. But, I know it was worth it. I’ll be doing this at least once a month over the winter!

Happy cooking!!

Moroccan-style Chicken Stew (Instant Pot) and where I go from here

Greetings!

It’s been a long time, and I definitely do not have a good excuse. My absence has been due in part to starting the ketogenic way of eating. It was time to take charge of my health and listen to my body in a way I never really had. But, that left me in an odd position. This blog is entitled With a Side of RICE. Can’t have that on keto, eh? (I sorely miss it, by the way.) So while I have been cooking some extremely yummy foods, I didn’t think it right to share them here.

I’ve moved beyond that thinking now, after a few conversations with close family and friends. This isn’t going to be my way of eating forever. I’ll have rice again and pasta, and all those other yummy carby foods. Meanwhile, you’ll see a lot more high fat and greens-centric recipes here. Avocado, bacon, eggs, and spinach will be very present!! (Maybe I should change the name to With a Side of Bacon? Haha.)

That said, please stick around, and feel free to adapt the recipes to suit your own dietary needs if you are not low carb/keto. And share your changes in the comments because I’m always curious about how people cook!!

Now, today I do have a recipe for you that isn’t keto-friendly, but is very healthy and I made it in hopes to clean out some of the pantry items that I’ve had for way too long. It’s also lower in carb than a lot of other foods out there, and quite frankly it was delicious. It felt like an indulgence!

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Moroccan-style Chicken Stew (Instant Pot recipe)

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, frozen
1 cup chicken broth
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 tbsp Harissa paste (I like a LOT)
1 can full fat coconut milk
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes, drained
4 cups spinach
1 medium onion, sliced thinly

Add chicken, broth, garlic, Harissa paste, and a dash of salt to the IP, set at 30 minutes on Poultry setting. Let naturally release pressure for 10 minutes. You may still have to manually release some pressure after this.

Drain chicken, reserving half a cup of broth. Add the coconut milk and other ingredients to the IP and mix well. Set at 10 minutes on the Stew setting. Let naturally release if desired, but the manual release method can used here also. Use caution, as always!

Works well on its own, but I served it with tricolor quinoa. Some flatbread would also be delicious. And grilled peaches to remember the fact that it is summer and I just made a stew hahaha. (None of these are low carb, but hey.)

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I was so happy with this recipe, considering it was kind of a dump-the-pantry idea. I’m also currently obsessing over Harissa paste. And if you don’t have an Instant Pot and want to make this recipe, just bake the chicken first, shred it, and then go from there on the stove.

Happy Cooking!!

Chicken & Chorizo Stew (for the Instant Pot)

Today felt like autumn and it made me happy. We were able to open the windows for the first time in at least a month and a half. Granted, I have a weird cold/sinus infection, so I spent the day inside reading comic books, but it was still nice to feel the cooler air. It’s strange that August is nearly over, already, though. I’m not sure why, but this year feels like it’s going by incredibly fast.

Last night was the first time I had really cooked in a week or so; being sick makes it difficult to want to do things, let alone work with food. (Coughing and sneezing in the kitchen? Nope. Haha.) But I figured it was time to finally make some chicken soup, since that usually is a bit of a cure-all, at least taste-wise and psychologically. Of course, I forgot to pull the chicken out of the freezer before work; this is a regular occurence. When I got home, I also saw the package of Johnsonville Chorizo Sausage and decided that using both meats was what I really wanted for dinner. And, since I have an Instant Pot, I didn’t even have to thaw anything! Just threw the chicken breasts and the sausages into the pot, poured in a cup or so of water, and cooked on manual pressure for 40 minutes. The beautiful red-orange of the broth in my photos is due to this, and I must say, that was an unexpected lovely side effect. After the meat was done, I sauteed an onion and a few red potatoes in some olive oil and black pepper for a few minutes, then added the meats back in (now chopped and shredded), poured in two more cups of water, and set the IP to cook on the Meat/Stew setting for 15 minutes. After that was done, I stirred in a whole bag of spinach. It.was.perfection.

I’m certain this can be made without an Instant Pot or pressure cooker, but I’m not quite sure you’ll achieve the same wonderful broth. Also, feel free to add salt to taste, but it definitely wasn’t necessary with the mix of flavors!

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Chicken & Chorizo Stew (For the Instant Pot)

Ingredients:

1-2 pounds chicken breast

1 package Johnsonville Chorizo (5 links)

1 onion, halved and sliced

3-4 small potatoes, roughly chopped

Olive oil

Pepper

2-4 cups water

1 package baby spinach (Fresh Express has a 5oz bag; this is what I used)

If your chicken and sausages are still frozen, pop them in the Instant Pot with 1 cup water and set at manual high pressure for 40 minutes. (If they are not frozen, 15-20 ought to do it, depending on the thickness of the meats.) Once the timer goes off, release the pressure according to the IP instructions. Once pressure is released, transfer chicken, sausages, and broth into a separate bowl.

Press the Saute setting on the IP, pouring in a tablespoon of olive oil. Add in onions, potatoes, and a few sprinkles of pepper, and stir often, for 3 minutes. Shred the chicken, chop the sausage links into small pieces, and pour everything back into the IP, including the broth. Add 2-3 cups water, depending on how soupy you want it to be, stir everything quite well, then further cook for 15 minutes on the Meat/Stew setting.

Once the pressure has released again, stir in the spinach until well combined. Serve immediately.

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This is one of those foods that I will likely make again just to experiment with. It was incredible just like this, but I’m already thinking how it could become more of a tortilla or taco soup, or how a dollop of sour cream or Greek yogurt would be amazing on top, etc, etc. I have so many ideas. Plus I’m just so proud of that broth. I really did not anticipate the color leeching out of the chorizo the way it did, and it permeated the entire dish.

Dang, now I’m really wishing there had been leftovers.

A Match Made in Foodie Heaven

Though I have tried a lot of ingredients and whole dishes that are not familiar to the standard American palate, there are many that I have enjoyed the taste of and not yet cooked with. Miso paste is one of those things. I love a good miso soup, but for some reason the idea of buying and actually working with the fermented soybean paste from Japan kind of intimidated me. Well, no longer! I ordered some white miso and red miso from Amazon last week and researched some recipes. Last night I concocted this incredible glaze and used it to coat chickpeas and toast them, as well as coat chicken breasts and bake them. This recipe can be doubled, tripled, whatever. I was slightly obsessing over this, hence the post title. It really IS that good.

Miso-Butter Glaze

2 tablespoons butter

1 heaping tablespoon white miso paste

1 teaspoon rice vinegar

Add miso and butter to small saucepan. Cook over medium heat until butter begins to melt. Use a wire whisk to combine, adding in the rice vinegar as the miso is mostly incorporated. Whisk till creamy. Pour over beans, chicken, sauteed greens, etc.

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Last night’s dinner ended up being a really amazing summer salad with the miso-butter chickpeas lending crunch in the midst of greens and strawberries, and miso-butter glazed chicken baked in the oven with small potatoes in my beloved cast iron skillet. The salad needs some tweaking texture-wise, so I am not sharing it here just yet, but hopefully it will be featured in the future!