Roast Chicken Envy
So, have you ever had that feeling where you're watching a movie, and someone pulls something unbelievably delicious-looking from an oven, and it's a big hunk of roast -something-? Then you start to wonder to yourself, "I wonder if I could make that.", or, "I wonder if mine would taste as good as that if I made it."?
Try having that feeling a million and one times, and you will be where I am right now. I am in this state of place where I absolutely enjoy every minute I spend cooking. I have been cooking a lot this year, making things that I have never made before, and expanding the horizons of my non-existent recipe-book.
And so, on Monday, just four days ago, I decided to cook this.
Roasted Rosemary and Lemon Chicken.
Quite a big reach for someone who had absolutely zero experience with roasting chicken, much less anything else, but I was determined, and I was ready. I'd been cooking simple things far too long, and I wanted to give it a try.
And so I bought the ingredients. Kampung chicken, which is basically a village chicken that has been allowed to roam free its entire life. Small, but 2 pounds in weight, which is what the recipe specified. Brought it home along with the rest of my ingredients. The couz was coming over for dinner, and I had decided to make my roast-potatoes-and-carrots with basil to accompany the chicken.
I also made my best investment of the month: Spending RM 15+ on a 500ml bottle of extra-virgin olive oil. Best. Decision. Ever.
Seriously. Olive oil is not only healthy and yummy, you feel absolutely zero qualms about cooking your pasta with it. And at the end of the day, if you want...
..use it as massage oil. Have you ever heard of another oil with so many uses? (If you have, don't tell me. I rather like thinking of olive oil as my supreme favourite oil)
So I washed my little chicken and added salt and pepper. Preparing it without freaking out was quite hard at this point, because... well, I had this mentality that first-time-chicken-roasts did not turn out well. Nonetheless, I got everything readied and good to go.
I think my moment of revelation came when I was frying the garlic and rosemary needles in butter and olive oil. I leaned over to smell it, and I was in love. At that precise moment, I was like Julia Child in my own right.
I took a couple of photos when I stuffed the chicken, but I realised it was likely quite the worst thing in the world to do. I mean, I was literally photographing up a chicken's arse, here. Not exactly the kindest of things to do to something you are about to roast and devour.
But if you can see it, there is lemon, a sprig of rosemary, and fried garlic cloves in there.
Skip a few hours and I pull the chicken from the oven. She's the most beautiful chicken in the world. She smells great, and she's just right; crisp skinned, and tender-fleshed. If I were into women and beastiality, she would've been the ONE for me.
The potatoes and carrots turned out very well this time. I was careful to not OD on salt this time around, so that it didn't taste as horribly salty as it did when I made it with my porkchops that one time. Unfortunately, I was later told that my couz was not into potatoes. So she ate the carrots and I took the potatoes. Good partnership, that one.
The table was set hastily, and we set about cutting the chicken up. I'd cut up celery slices, but the couz was not into those, too. I swear I am not a health nut; I just like the taste of celery. Couz had brought along this peach drink thing under the brand name Bundaberg, which I quite liked.
The chicken itself had good flavour. I liked the zesty lemon-and-rosemary taste of it, and was very glad to know that I had not OD'd on salt for it, either. The flesh was -really- tender, but not too fat, for which I am glad I purchased the kampung chicken. (Chickens that are allowed to run free have thinner legs!)
The sauce wasn't too great, but eh, I didn't make -that- according to instructions, so maybe that is my fault. All in all, I think I did a pretty good job roasting my very first chicken.
Though I did think that my friend Lou's comment on how I should just quit college and start a restaurant was very funny. Hahahaha, mom would SO hate it, but that is only because she hasn't tasted the chicken.
Next up! Jamie Oliver's recipe for whitefish wrapped in streaky bacon!
Try having that feeling a million and one times, and you will be where I am right now. I am in this state of place where I absolutely enjoy every minute I spend cooking. I have been cooking a lot this year, making things that I have never made before, and expanding the horizons of my non-existent recipe-book.
And so, on Monday, just four days ago, I decided to cook this.
Roasted Rosemary and Lemon Chicken.
Quite a big reach for someone who had absolutely zero experience with roasting chicken, much less anything else, but I was determined, and I was ready. I'd been cooking simple things far too long, and I wanted to give it a try.
And so I bought the ingredients. Kampung chicken, which is basically a village chicken that has been allowed to roam free its entire life. Small, but 2 pounds in weight, which is what the recipe specified. Brought it home along with the rest of my ingredients. The couz was coming over for dinner, and I had decided to make my roast-potatoes-and-carrots with basil to accompany the chicken.
I also made my best investment of the month: Spending RM 15+ on a 500ml bottle of extra-virgin olive oil. Best. Decision. Ever.
Seriously. Olive oil is not only healthy and yummy, you feel absolutely zero qualms about cooking your pasta with it. And at the end of the day, if you want...
..use it as massage oil. Have you ever heard of another oil with so many uses? (If you have, don't tell me. I rather like thinking of olive oil as my supreme favourite oil)
So I washed my little chicken and added salt and pepper. Preparing it without freaking out was quite hard at this point, because... well, I had this mentality that first-time-chicken-roasts did not turn out well. Nonetheless, I got everything readied and good to go.
I think my moment of revelation came when I was frying the garlic and rosemary needles in butter and olive oil. I leaned over to smell it, and I was in love. At that precise moment, I was like Julia Child in my own right.
I took a couple of photos when I stuffed the chicken, but I realised it was likely quite the worst thing in the world to do. I mean, I was literally photographing up a chicken's arse, here. Not exactly the kindest of things to do to something you are about to roast and devour.
But if you can see it, there is lemon, a sprig of rosemary, and fried garlic cloves in there.
Skip a few hours and I pull the chicken from the oven. She's the most beautiful chicken in the world. She smells great, and she's just right; crisp skinned, and tender-fleshed. If I were into women and beastiality, she would've been the ONE for me.
The potatoes and carrots turned out very well this time. I was careful to not OD on salt this time around, so that it didn't taste as horribly salty as it did when I made it with my porkchops that one time. Unfortunately, I was later told that my couz was not into potatoes. So she ate the carrots and I took the potatoes. Good partnership, that one.
The table was set hastily, and we set about cutting the chicken up. I'd cut up celery slices, but the couz was not into those, too. I swear I am not a health nut; I just like the taste of celery. Couz had brought along this peach drink thing under the brand name Bundaberg, which I quite liked.
The chicken itself had good flavour. I liked the zesty lemon-and-rosemary taste of it, and was very glad to know that I had not OD'd on salt for it, either. The flesh was -really- tender, but not too fat, for which I am glad I purchased the kampung chicken. (Chickens that are allowed to run free have thinner legs!)
The sauce wasn't too great, but eh, I didn't make -that- according to instructions, so maybe that is my fault. All in all, I think I did a pretty good job roasting my very first chicken.
Though I did think that my friend Lou's comment on how I should just quit college and start a restaurant was very funny. Hahahaha, mom would SO hate it, but that is only because she hasn't tasted the chicken.
Next up! Jamie Oliver's recipe for whitefish wrapped in streaky bacon!