Chicken Roulade

Chicken is my cooking nemesis.

There was a time that I stirred clear of cooking chicken, well it was not too hard as I don't really like chicken.  In fact, it would be the last thing I order unless I am in a chicken place--obviously.

There was too many beef, pork and fish recipes that I wanted to try anyways.

If I really NEEDED to cook chicken, I'd boil it first.  Then I'd brown it in the oven or on a pan.  That was that.  No baked chicken. 

However, as with life there will come a point when you need to overcome your past failures.  It was funny how my meat thermometer decided to bail on me the first time I wanted to cook chicken without the pre-boil ceremony I had gotten accustomed to.

I picked (I was not going to make it easy) Chicken Roulade.  I have not done roulade anything, so this was exciting.

I also was not too ready--I did not have cooking twine.  I'm sorry to say that I used silk yarns to tie around the flattened, stuffed and rolled chicken breast!

The spices I had were my favorites, chives, butter, garlic, crispy chicken skin, rosemary and salt.  I kept it pretty simple.  Today, it was about cooking moist chicken that is brown outside.

just roll with me, roll with me.

I can't be happier with the end result.  I was surprised on how it came out.  Admittedly I was a little scared slicing through and you can see the hesitation I (and my knife blade) had slicing through.


Looking forward to cooking more chicken--though probably still not as much as other proteins :)

one chicken, one meal

Last week, I decided to use my new dutch oven (at my fiance's flat) to bake a whole chicken.

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When I got back from the store I started by warming up the lemon and poking small slits.  This lemon would go into the chicken cavity together with salt and herbs.

So far, so good.

I peeled the cling wrap from the chicken so I can wash the bird.

OMG!

I jumped back. 

The head was still attached!

AND THE FEET! 

The feet were in the cavity.

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I called my fiance and he came into the rescue but cutting the monster's head and feet off.

He was also kind enough to wash the chicken for me--I think that was his apology for cutting off the leg the from calf rather than the ankle.  No wonder it looked funny!

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With adrenaline pumping into my veins from the fright I just had, I continued seasoning the chicken.

I laid it over a bed of onions inside the dutch oven, turned on the heat and prepared to bake potato and sweet potato in the oven.
 

missing 'calves'

The chicken came out super juicy and tasty! 

Only...the onions were burnt!  There was no burnt taste at all.  Nor burnt smell. 

I'd research on how not to burn the lining.  I know my dad uses a bed of sea salt, but where I live that is not really very practical.

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My Fiance loved the chicken.   He ate 3/4 of the bird! 

We finished it all in one sitting--even with all the baked sides.

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For next time, I need to figure out which chicken for sale no longer have a head and feet.

And how not to burn the ingredients that touch the bottom of the pan.