"Wait! Where are you going mom? You just going to leave me in here while you go have fun in the kitchen?"
"Oh all right I will occupy myself for a while"
One of the things I have discovered while trying to save on my monthly grocery bill is that buying whole chickens is cheaper than just buying parts of a chicken. You get more bang for your buck. Plus a couple of different meals out of it. Yesterday I cooked a whole 5.5lb chicken. This chicken will give me three different dinners. The first night chicken breast with salad and rice. The second night Garlic Chicken Quinoa. The third night Chicken Pad Thai!
Here are the directions on how to roast a chicken:
All you need is three simple ingredients a chicken (organic 5.5lb chicken found on sale at Fred Meyers for $9 non organic same size was on sale for $6 dollars), 3-5tsp of black pepper and 6-8 cloves of garlic.
Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees or 325 for a softer more moist chicken (if lower temp cook for 2-3 hours)
Remove giblets and neck from chicken
rub the chicken cavity with 1/2 a teaspoon of salt , 1/2 a teaspoon of black pepper and 3 crushed cloves of garlic
Use remaining black pepper and garlic cloves to rub outside of chicken.
Place chicken in pan. Drizzle Olive Oil over top. Place in oven. Roast 45 minutes or until temperature in thigh reaches 175 degrees F when meat thermometer is inserted. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.
First nights dinner garlic roasted chicken with side salad
Second nights dinner (garlic chicken quinoa) with a side of homemade meatballs courtesy of my mum.
Day Three's dinner: Garlic Chicken Pad Thai. We also had a side salad with this. The green you see is stir fried chard. Yummy.
Gosh, Jessica, this is amazing! I really love your blog. It is so helpful and is really inspiring me to do more organic. :) Love ya!
ReplyDeleteDid you mention the meat balls were organic farm raised beef, one organic egg, organic bread crumbs (store bought) cooked in coconut oil. Mum
ReplyDeleteThanks Jess! Just so you know it seems like Fred Meyers marks down their organic whole chickens on Fridays. My mom bought eight at half price yesterday.I am looking into finding local "fresh" organic chicken. I will let you know what I find out! Of note for those who eat gluten free: The meat balls can also be made gluten free if you substitute gluten free bread crumbs. I will have a recipe coming out for that soon.
ReplyDeletedid you make the galric ckn pad thai from scratch or use a jar of sauce? Please share.
ReplyDeletewhen roasting the ckn did you cover it w/ foil?
ReplyDeleteJenni good questions! I do not cover my chicken with foil. I never have. I like the rich light brown color it turns without the foil. As far as the pad thai sauce, this time I used a recipe and made it from scratch. I do use a sauce sometimes that I buy for special occasions. I get the thai kitchen brand from the gluten free section.
ReplyDeleteI can remember getting several chickens when my kids were younger and the price was 39 cents/lb and then I would divide the chicken up before cooking and bag it up for several meals. It worked out good for the different parts each would enjoy eating. Thanks for the delicious looking photos.
ReplyDelete