Whole Chickens Are Yummy and Economical

Sidonie Maroon

Roast Chicken

So delicious — herby, garlicky roast chicken with a crispy skin. Every couple of weeks, I’ll roast a whole chicken in my Breville countertop oven. The oven’s kept on a cart in my pantry, so I roll it out, plug it in, and preheat to 425 F. Then, line a broiling pan with parchment paper, lay on the whole chicken and massaging it with a heady homemade paste of 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt, 1 tablespoon minced thyme or rosemary from the garden, half a head of garlic and a quarter cup of olive oil. 

I don’t truss and place it back side down. It roasts for 45 minutes. I check at the thickest part of the thigh with an instant read probe thermometer for 165F — The USDA safe temperature for poultry. The juices should run clear from the leg joint, not pink. The bird sits for 15 minutes before carving, as I snitch at the crackly, herb salty-garlic skin. Heaven!

Classy Economy 

This meal, with a sweet potato and a side salad, is our first of three meals from this chicken. I pour the pan juices over the leftover meat before refrigerating, so it marinates in its own juices. The bones go in my 6 quart Instant Pot with 2 quarts of water and whatever vegetable scraps I’ve saved up. I set the pot to 2 hours on high pressure with a natural release. When it’s done, I strain it into a ½ gallon mason jar and refrigerate. About ½ cup of beautiful semi solid fat will settle to the top of the jars. I scoop it out and use it to saute vegetables.

We’ll have chicken for two more dinners, plus lunches in either soups, salads, tacos, sandwiches, or a casserole. The stock is used to make soup, cook legumes or as a broth for risotto.

Tasty Ranger free-range chickens are in my price bracket. I pay $12 to $15 for a bird. For a two person family, we get three dinners, a couple of lunches, two quarts of homemade stock and delicious cooking fat. For protein, that’s $1.50 per person per meal.

Learn to Cut Up Fryers

I encourage you to learn how to do this if you haven’t tried. The advantage of doing it yourself is the price and extra meat for stock. The best way to learn, besides having someone show you, is to watch a YouTube video. Here are a couple I’d recommend: “How to cut-up a whole chicken/Melissa Clark Recipes/The New York Times” and “How to cut up a whole chicken from Napa Valley Cooking School”.

Poaching in the Instant Pot

If you want moist, tender chicken and will sacrifice the crispy skin, try poaching in the Instant Pot. Use 2 quarts of water, with 1 tablespoon fine sea salt, 2 tablespoons ginger and a chopped onion. Submerge the chicken in the water, 90% should be underwater. Set the Instant Pot for zero minutes, with a natural release of 22 minutes for a 3.6 pound bird. Increase or decrease the time by 2 minutes for every 4 ounces of weight. Check the bird’s temperature at the thickest part of the thigh for 165 F. Bring it out with tongs and allow it to cool. 

Instant Pot Mi Ga Vietnamese Roasted Chicken Noodle Soup

Serves 4

Make this satisfying flavorful noodle soup when you have leftover roasted chicken and bones to make stock. It’s easy when you put the Instant Pot to work. 

Ingredients

For the broth

6 cups unsalted chicken broth

2 tablespoons fresh ginger, minced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium onion, chopped

2 teaspoons fish sauce

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice, (recipe follows) 

1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil, more for the table

2 teaspoons maple syrup or sugar

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

For the soup

4 cups baby spinach or bok choy, halved lengthwise and cut on the diagonal about 2 inches long

2 cups roasted chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces

8 ounces of dried Chinese noodles, ramen or soba noodles. Cook according to the directions on the package and drain.

For the garnish

½ cup cilantro, chopped

2 scallions, sliced 

toasted sesame oil

ground black pepper

Directions

1. Add the chicken broth, ginger, garlic, onion, fish sauce, soy sauce and Chinese five-spice to the Instant Pot. Set to the broth cycle, or 30 minutes at high pressure with an instant release. Alternately, in a soup pot, bring the ingredients to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes. Strain the broth through a sieve lined with muslin. The broth should be clear. Bring the broth back to a simmer using the saute setting. Add the spinach or bok choy and cook for about 1 minute. Taste and add the toasted sesame oil, rice vinegar and maple syrup or sugar. Correct as wanted. Keep the broth hot at a low simmer.  

2. While the broth is cooking, prepare the other ingredients. Divide the noodles and chicken between four deep bowls. Lightly dust the chicken with a pinch of Chinese five-spice. Add the hot broth and top with the cilantro and scallions. Let the diners add fresh black pepper if they wish.    

3. Extra tip: keep the bowls, noodles and chicken warm in the oven set at 140F

Chinese Five-Spice

Makes ¼ cup

Toast the star anise, cloves, peppercorns and fennel. Mix in the cinnamon and, using a spice grinder, grind into a powder.   

1 tablespoon star anise pieces

1 tablespoon fennel seeds

1 tablespoon ground cassia cinnamon

1 teaspoon whole cloves

1 ½ teaspoons Sichuan pepper or black peppercorns

Poulet rôti à l’ail

(Roast chicken with garlic)

Inspired by Thomas Keller’s Simple Roast Chicken

Serves 4 

15 minutes prep and 50 minutes roasting 

Rubbing olive oil and garlic under the skin, and roasting the bird at a high temperature makes a moist, flavorful chicken with crispy garlic infused skin. It’s the perfect center of a meal, and the first step to easy chicken stock. 

Ingredients

3 lb organic whole chicken, giblets removed and patted dry

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 head garlic, finely minced

1 tablespoon Celtic sea salt

Baker’s twine for trussing the chicken

Variation: add 2 tablespoons freshly minced herbs, like rosemary or thyme, to the garlic, when it’s stuffed under the skin.  

Instructions

1.Preheat the oven to 450 F. Prepare a roasting pan lined with parchment paper to catch the precious drippings and save on cleanup. Prep the garlic, and measure out the salt and oil.

2.Carefully, to minimize tearing, insert your hand under the breast skin and gently loosen the skin from the meat. Don’t worry if there are a few tears, or tears, because you can pull the skin together later. Turn the chicken over and do the same to the back side and up into the legs. The more you practice this technique, the easier it becomes. It’s worth the effort to create excellent roast skin.

3.Rub the olive oil all over the bird, especially under the skin. Salt the outside of the bird and inside the cavity. Stuff the minced garlic under the loosened skin. Regardless, if you truss or not, pull the skin back over any exposed flesh so it won’t dry out.

4.Roast for 50 minutes, resting for 15 minutes before removing the twine for a trussed bird. Be sure to take this opportunity to snitch the wing tips and chicken butt before slicing and serving. This bird is all about the skin.

5. If I don’t make a sauce with the pan juices, then I soak the leftover meat in it. By the next day; the flavors have penetrated the meat and make excellent eating. 

Moqueca de Frango Instant Pot

Serves 6-8

A vibrant Brazilian samba of a chicken stew with luscious layers of flavor, sure to become a favorite. The chicken’s poached in the Instant Pot; then the chicken bones and produce scraps from the rest of the stew make the flavorful broth! The rest of the stew comes together while the broth cooks.      

Ingredients

3 lb whole chicken

1 cup water 

Saute Ingredients

¼ cup red palm oil, sustainably Coop sourced

2 large white onions cut Chinese style into thin half slices

2 red bell peppers cut into very thin half rounds

6 cloves garlic minced

1 tablespoon fresh turmeric root paste

1 ½  tablespoons fresh ginger paste

1 tablespoon sweet paprika

2 cups diced canned tomatoes

Broth ingredients

Bones from chicken

1 ½ quarts water or enough to cover the broth ingredients

2 tablespoons fish sauce

1 dried bird’s-eye chili 

stems from parsley and cilantro, scraps from red peppers, peels from ginger and turmeric

1 ½ teaspoons fine sea salt

Finishing Ingredients

1 can of full fat coconut milk

1 cup chopped parsley

1 cup chopped cilantro

Fine sea salt to taste

1 lime cut into quarters

Freshly ground black pepper.

Topping

1 cup toasted cashews for serving

1 cup toasted coconut flake for serving

1 cup chopped cilantro for serving

1 lime cut into slices for serving

Directions

Cook the whole chicken in the Instant pot.

Add the whole chicken, removing the giblets, to the Instant pot with 1 cup of water. Set on high pressure for 30 minutes, using a natural release for 10 minutes.

While the chicken cooks

1. prep all the vegetables, saving the parsley and cilantro stems, scraps from the red peppers, and peels from ginger and turmeric.

Start the Broth in the Instant Pot

After the chicken is done, cool and remove the meat from the bones. Add all the bones back into the Instant pot with 1 ½ quarts cold water, fish sauce, dried bird’s-eye chili, parsley and cilantro stems, scraps from the red peppers, peels from the ginger and turmeric and 1 teaspoon fine sea salt. Set the Instant Pot on the broth cycle, using the instant release. When it’s finished, strain the broth.

You won’t use all of it, so reserve for another meal or freeze. 

While the broth cooks

1. Shred the chicken and reserve.

2. Saute the onions on medium high in red palm oil until sweet about 10 minutes, add the red pepper and continue to saute for 5 minutes, add garlic, ginger and turmeric and continue for 3-4 minutes more. Add the sweet paprika and diced tomatoes. Salt to taste.   

3. Dry toast the cashews over a low heat and roughly chop. In the same pan, toast the coconut until just golden. Mix and set aside.

Finishing the Stew

Add the coconut milk, onion and pepper saute, parsley and cilantro, and chicken to the Instant Pot. Add enough of the broth to make a stew consistency, more if you like it brothy. Gently heat the stew until hot. Taste for salt, adding until the flavors pop. Squeeze in the lime quarters, adding until the balance is right. The acid and salt should help the natural flavors come out, not overwhelm them. Grind fresh black pepper, or let the diners add the pepper and lime at the table. Serve the stew hot with the cashew topping sprinkled over the individual bowls.

West African Inspired Chicken Veggie Stew

This heart-warming, intoxicatingly spiced, wholesome stew was born out of improvisation and intuition. It is not directly based on West African cuisine but created in anticipation of a Fatoumata Diawara concert, a singer from Mali. With our relatively limited knowledge of Malian food, we tried to incorporate a few essentials of the food culture into this stew. Don’t let the ingredient list scare you. This recipe is quite simple to put together.

Ingredients

Spices:

5 cardamom pods

2 cloves

5 allspice berries

1 teaspoon coriander

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon turmeric

½ teaspoon caraway seeds

½ teaspoon dill seed

1 Tablespoon paprika

½ teaspoon black peppercorns

1 bay leaf

1 tablespoon onion flakes

1 teaspoon garlic flakes

Stew:

¼ cup red palm oil (sustainably sourced!)

2 bird's-eye chiles

2 onions

4 carrots

2 celery stalks

4 garlic cloves

1 ½ inch fresh ginger root

1 cup parsley (measure when finely chopped)

1 bunch of kale

2 medium potatoes

1 quart water

2 lbs chicken thigh

2 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons potato starch

1 cup water

Rice

1 ½ cups white rice

¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon turmeric

3 cups water

Directions

1. Grind spices.

2. Cut chicken thighs into bite-sized pieces.

3. Heat red palm oil in the bottom of an Instant Pot set to saute. When it’s hot, add the bird's-eye chiles. Dice the onions and add to the pot. Dice carrots and celery and add to the pot when onions are nearly translucent and stick to the bottom a bit. Finely mince the garlic and ginger and add them to the mix. Peel potatoes and chop them into bite-sized chunks, add. Finely chiffonade kale and add. Finely chop parsley and add. Add 3 tablespoons of spice mixture. Add chicken. Cook for ½ hour, set to instant release.

4. Make the rice. First, rinse the rice in a strainer until the water coming off the rice is clear (it will take a while). Then, add rice, water, turmeric, and salt to a rice cooker. Set to the “white rice” cycle. Your work is done.