CHICKEN RUN!

Cooking class week eight, I’m back in action everyone my stitches are out. This week we roast a chicken , make onion and sage dressing and zucchini provencal.

Now fun fact before class I always get stressed out this week I was like ” What if I under cook the chicken and kill Shoe and I, what if I start a fire what if I cut myself” Normal thoughts I have in my head that normally causes me not wanting to go to class. Even now as I write this blog I am full of worry but I always say press on and this time the words must press on!

Now once I get into the thick of it I begin to relax, once I’m in the chaos of it all I shine bright like a diamond.

Now today F was showing use a bunch of items we started off with how to get the chicken ready for the oven. He said not to wash fresh chickens because it gets bacteria everywhere. He showed us how to truss a chicken. First toss some pepper and salt up it’s butt before you tie this bird up. Next under it’s butt place your butcher twine then cross it now under the legs cross it again. Over the top and do a half hitch around the wings being on the underside of the chicken now tie it tight. Now toss some salt and pepper and oil your bird! Make sure to tie it first before oiling it up or well it may turn into a runaway chicken! Place in a pot upon a bed of carrots and celery. Now this wasn’t to bad I mean my chicken was missing this little nub on it’s butt I believe it’s some form of tail that makes it easier to tie the chicken down BUT I use to be an expect in all matters of knots and ropes so a flick of the wrist and I had that bird oven ready.

Now back at the table F cracked out some liver and bread while our birds cooked in the oven. The onion and sage dressing I had no idea had liver and bread in it till I read the list. I was confused till F said it was just another word for stuffing because it wasn’t inside something. My mind exploded! Anyway F said to blanch the chicken livers because it removes the blood and it gets ride of that metal taste. Which now makes a lot of sense blood has iron, this is what I do in class when F is talking sit there feel like a secret of life has just bee unlocked for me when it should have been clear!

Now in a pan toss your chopped onions let them sweat a little, toss that liver in but not to long. Now get your day old bread which kinds of bugs me I gotta buy bread and wait a day for it to get old not really that long if you factor into how long the universe has been around but maybe I could open my own company call it day olds! Anyway we mix the onions, liver, sage, into a big bowl. Start putting the eggs in to act as a binder in eggs we shall be untied! Slowly pour your chicken stock in  but not all of it! Mix it all nicely together but make sure not to add all your stock if you add to much it won’t bind and it will pool on the bottom. Once it looks like solid mass place inside a tray has been buttered and fill. Place in the oven and you will know it’s cooked by it’s crispy top and by pressing on the middle if it feels hollow. Which is tough what does hollow feel like, I know what it sounds like but feel I guess when I bake it I shall know.

Last was the zucchini provencal which wasn’t anything special in my mind. Cut some onions, garlic and zucchini put in a pan, toss some herbs and canned tomatoes and cooked off it was good and easy!

Best part of the evening was when I pulled my chicken out stuck my tongs up it’s butt and tipped it over and let the juices fall out and they ran clear! What this means is your chicken is cooked if you tip it over and it’s still bloody then put that part back in it ain’t cooked. You can also cut where the leg meets the thighs and if you can’t see pink your good or check it’s temperature 172 fahrenheit. Check it in the breast but don’t go to deep and hit the bone, the bones are hotter than the meat!

Now that bed of carrots and celery don’t toss that out I don’t like to waste never waste food. We cooked our sauce in the same pan as the chicken was in while in the oven lets make a sauce! Turn up the heat on the stove top let the fat at the bottom of that pan cook off for a second pour your stock in let it heat up and continue to add wine, herbs and ether flour or corn starch to thick it up and now you have a lovely sauce with veggies that had been cooked in chicken fat. Waste nothing use it all something died so you may continue onward you needed use everything. Someone worked hard to grow those veggies waste nothing.

It was a fun class and I had a great time till next week all!