Tag: carrots

Roasted Chicken & Vegetables

Today was such a good day! We spent the morning and afternoon shopping for goodies for our kitchen! I went to Williams Sonoma and got new wooden spoons, some measuring cups, a new cooling rack and a zester. I seem to have lost my last zester from our last move. Yay for no longer having to use a cheese grater for zesting lemons!

Then I went to Sur La Table and got a couple serving platters! I just love getting new things for our kitchen. Luke and I are eventually planning to build our next home ( in the next year or two) and I have some BIG ideas for our future kitchen, I can hardly wait.

Anyway, so a few days ago we had gone to a night time farmers market at the Pearl in San Antonio. I had gotten some carrots, green onions and some other fresh vegetables. So I needed to cook them today because I was scared they would go bad soon.

 

 

I love roasting chicken with carrots/vegetables, especially when cooked in the same pan. It allows all the yummy juices from the chicken to sink into the vegetables and the flavor is so good!!

 

 

You can roast just about any vegetable combo with your chicken but I find that onions, carrots and potatoes are just the best. That’s how my mom use to bake her chicken and that’s how I like to do it too now! Plus, my picky eater of a son is into carrots and potatoes. So it’s a win-win for us.

Below, I will be sharing my usual method for roasting chicken, it makes for a tender juicy inside with a crispy skin! Crispy chicken skin is my favorite part of roasting a chicken! I hope you enjoy.

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Ingredients:

- 1 whole chicken
- 1 small orange
- 2 tsp paprika
- salt/ pepper to taste (enough to coat 
  entire chicken)
- 2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 4 tbs room-temp butter
- 5-7 large carrots
- 2 large green onions
- 2 tbs chopped green onion 
  reserved for garnish
- 1 lb assorted small potatoes or red potatoes
- additional salt / pepper for vegetables to taste

Instructions

Set your oven to 400 degrees. Clean out the cavity of the chicken and rinse the entire skin well with cold water. Pat dry the chicken with a paper towel and set the chicken in a large roasting pan. Coat the outside and underneath the skin of the chicken with room temperature butter. About 2 tbs on skin and 2 tbs under the skin. Sprinkle the paprika over the top of the chicken as well as the salt and pepper (liberally).  Roughly chop one small orange and insert into the cavity of the chicken also add garlic into the cavity with the orange. Take a piece of cooking string and tie the chicken legs closed together.

Arrange the onions, carrots and potatoes around the chicken in the roasting pan. Coat the vegetables with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle entirely with salt/ pepper and the extra chopped green onions. Make sure to coat the vegetables evenly with The EVOO.

Place the roasting pan in the oven for about an hour and a half. Cooking time will vary depending on the size of your chicken. At about the 45 minute mark, open the oven and baste the chicken with the juices that begin to fill the bottom of the pan. Baste the entire chicken a few times with a spoon, then allow to continue cooking. If your chicken has achieved the perfect brown color, but is not done cooking internally, then set the oven down to 350 degrees and cover the pan with foil. If you’re Chicken is cooked internally, (you’ll know if you cut into the chicken between the leg and thigh, and the juices run clear), and the skin is not browned or crispy, set your broiler on for 3-5 minutes or until desired color of skin is achieved.

Let the chicken rest for ten minutes outside of the oven before carving.

Thank you for reading.

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Chicken Egg Roll in a Bowl

 

Luke always asks me to make him “healthy” prepped meals that he can take to work. He works long hours, so sometimes he will eat more than one meal on a shift, so it’s easy for him to take multiple meals and eat when he can.

Anyway, I’m not a fan of healthy, green, granola lifestyle type of cooking. Give me the butter, fat, cream and sugar! That’s just how I am, but Luke is not! He tries his best to eat right and eat clean. So I try my best to accommodate for him every now and then!

A few months ago, Luke was working in the valley and found a healthy food store that prepped meals. One of the meals was a ground turkey egg roll bowl, he fell in love with it. He came home from that trip and kept asking me to make it for him, so I did.

I’ve made it a few times since, and tweaked the ingredients here and there. I like using ground chicken, but it could be done with just about anything! Hope you enjoy!

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Ingredients:

I - 1 1/2 tbs sesame oil
- 1 lb ground chicken
- 3 cups shredded cabbage
- 1 small yellow onion
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 3/4 cup of diced carrots 
- 1/4 cup of diced green onions 
- 2 1/2 tbs soy sauce (or more, taste to your 
  liking)
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 2 tbs garlic powder 
- Toasted sesame seeds optional 
- Salt and pepper to taste (lots of pepper)
- Sriracha mayo for garnish, optional

Instructions:

Dice the yellow onion, garlic and carrots, set aside. Pour sesame oil into pan over medium high heat and begin cooking the ground chicken. Salt and pepper the chicken lightly. When the chicken seems mostly cooked through, add in the cabbage, yellow onion, garlic and carrots. As they cook down, season with garlic powder and onion powder. Add in soy sauce, taste the mixture and if it needs more soy sauce add a teaspoon more at a time, till you have achieved a taste to your liking.

Remove the pan from heat and throw in diced green onions and toasted sesame seeds. Serve in bowl and add Sriracha mayo on top if desired. Let cool and it is ready to serve.