Simple Roast Chicken Method

Roasted whole chicken is a great weekday meal- Everyone can choose their favorite part of the chicken, plus in our case there are normally a ton of leftovers to work with the next day!  Today I'll be showing the method I use.  This is a no-frills, simple way of cooking a plain ol' refrigerated chicken, but if you prefer, you can smush herby compound butter under the skin or brine that sucker.

Finished product with bonus asparagi and mac n' cheese

I always use a cast iron skillet to cook my chicken, but any heavy roasting pan works.

The most important bit of this method is the super duper scientific calculation you must make to time the cook!  So fancy!  [Weight in lbs x 20] + 10 = Minutes in the oven at 350* F.

Example Chicken!

So, for example, with my chicken tonight, [4.83 x 20] + 10 = ~107 minutes (AKA 1 hour and 43 minutes)  Thank you, phone calculator!

I like to add whatever veggies I have laying around to the pan, nestled up against the chicken.  The fat flavors them wonderfully and you can always make a more flavorful gravy if you feel so inclined! 

The key to getting a nice crisp skin without using super high temps is to make sure the chicken is thoroughly dried, before applying a little oil and the spices.

Raw and ready to roll

As you can see, simply dressed.  Rubbed with a squirt of olive oil on each side, stuffed with onion scraps and a few garlic cloves (unpeeled is fine), seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic, onion powder, cayenne pepper, and thyme.  Thyme is such a chicken-y herb.  Make sure you season both sides, and if you remember, some seasoning on the inside of the bird as well.

I "truss" legs in a really rudimentary way- I just tie them together nice and tight.  This apparently helps prevent dryness in the breast meat.  I don't keep kitchen twine handle so I use hemp strings.  It works!

Now you're all set!  Plop that badboy in the oven at 350* for your calculated time.  Once done, make sure to let it rest at least 5 or so minutes so the juices can redistribute.  I hope you find this method helpful!

Havana Night: Cuban "Medianoche" Sandwiches and Mojitos

Pepe and I have been missing the beach lately and decided to dedicate a night to Cuba.  Full disclosure, we are not even remotely Cuban and the night consisted of Netflix and listening to Harry Belafonte (who isn't even Cuban)...  Everything turned out well but I'm sure nothing was very authentic!  I unfortunately forgot to get plantains; fried up slices of those gigantic banana-things would have been awesome on the side.

Dat cheese ooze

Minty fresh!

CUBAN MEDIANOCHE SANDWICHES

Ingredients:

Mayonaise

Yellow mustard

Sliced deli ham

Swiss cheese

Dill Pickle sandwich slices

Cuban bread or hoagie roll

Method:

Slather rolls with mayo and mustard to taste

Layer a few slices of ham and a couple slices of cheese on bread

Load up the sandwich with pickles (you want pickle in every bite!)

Grill on lightly greased panini press or skillet on medium heat until cheese is oozy and bread is golden

Slice and eat, preferably with fried plantains and an icy mojito!

MOJITOS
Ingredients:

Shot of white rum

Juice of half a lime

1 T granulated sugar

Several mint leaves

~4 oz club soda, more/less to taste

Lime slice to garnish

Method:

Muddle mint leaves (I used about 4 per cocktail) in granulated sugar and lime juice

Add shot of rum, still until sugar is completely dissolved

Add ice and club soda, stir, and garnish with lime slice

Cheers!

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Finished product~

OK, first legitimate recipe, yay!  Hubs and I love spicy food, and enjoyed buffalo chicken pizzas at Buffalo Brothers for the first couple years of dating. However,  it's much cheaper to make at home and tastes great!

First of all, if you want to be O.G. about it, you gotta use Frank's Red Hot sauce.  It's the original hot sauce used in Buffalo, New York for the first "hot wings" made.  It's a great sauce and very versatile (awesome on eggs!)  Also, we are blue cheese fans.  Blue cheese is my FAVORITE kind of cheese, and I was a cheesemonger, so I've eaten way more cheese than I'd like to admit.  But I do understand that it's not for everyone, and so ranch can easily be substituted for this pizza, so no worries!

Sometimes I make my own pizza dough, but most of the time I don't.  That's a recipe for another day.  For this, I used the bagged pizza dough found in the deli section of my grocery store.  The Pillsbury stuff in a can is fine too, but I prefer the texture of the bagged stuff!

Whatever butters your biscuit!

For the chicken, I used bone-in thighs because they were cheap.  But use whatever you'd like as long as you soak it in that sweet sweet Franks.

Before hitting the hot oven

Aw yes, cheesy goodness

RECIPE

Ingredients:

1 ball of pizza dough

2 cups diced chicken, mixed with 1/2 cup Frank's Red Hot

1/4 cup Frank's Red Hot sauce, for drizzling on top of pizza

3/4 cup chunky blue cheese dressing OR ranch dressing

2 cups mozzarella cheese

3 tablespoons crumbled blue cheese

1/4 cup diced green onions

1 teaspoon cornmeal

Salt, garlic, and cayenne to taste

Method:

Preheat oven to 450* F, with pizza stone heating on bottom rack

~If no pizza stone, that's fine!  Just add 2 minutes to bottom rack cooking time and use a cookie sheet!~

Sprinkle a piece of parchment paper with corn meal

Stretch dough ball into desired pizza shape, coating the bottom with the cornmeal

Sprinkle dough with tiny pinch of salt, garlic, and cayenne pepper

Use the bottom of a spoon to spread dressing on the pizza as a base/sauce

Evenly distribute mozzarella on top

Place Frank's soaked chicken pieces all over

Sprinkle crumbled blue cheese over top of pizza

Drizzle Frank's Red Hot evenly over pizza

Put parchment paper with the pizza on the heated pizza stone, bottom of oven rack

Cook 5 minutes

Move pizza stone to center rack, cook 7 minutes or until golden brown crust and bubbling cheese

Remove and sprinkle with diced green onions

Cut pizza (just on parchment, never on the stone)

DONE!