Enter this whole chicken:
What's it doing in my hands you may ask? If Paul is going to eat chicken I figured he should eat chicken that is the most minimally processed, locally grown, and humanely raised. There should also be no waste to fully appreciate the life this chicken gave. This chicken came from the grocery store and the packaging said grown in the northwest, free range, and no antibiotics. While I would most prefer to have a chicken grown on a family farm within a 50 mile radius of my house, this was the closest we could get.
So I found a video on the interweb of how to butcher a chicken into 8 pieces and started hacking into it to the best of my ability. I think it will take a couple of tries to get it perfect, but I'm pretty proud of myself for tackling this challenge and I felt accomplished seeing recognizable cuts of breasts, wings, drumsticks, and thighs.
In a separate bag I put in the rest of the bones to freeze for making soup or broth. Not sure yet, but I wanted no waste! Kobe, of course, got the scraps of fat and excess skin. He was a very happy pup!
Recently I made this recipe with one of the chicken breasts (courtesy of Jamie Oliver in Cook with Jamie: My Guide to Making You a Better Cook
):
If you're wondering which one he picked, you wouldn't have a hard time guessing if you know Paul really well. The boy loves bacon. So I made him bacon wrapped chicken, going against pretty much everything I stand for.
Surrounded with leeks, olive oil, and butter; covered with fresh thyme.
Served with foil baked potatoes.
No wonder he loves me.
I LOVE chicken! I don't eat pork and only occasionally eat beef, but I LOVE chicken! I can't believe you were able to cut it up hahah! I am certainly not that brave, and I eat chicken almost every day hahaha. Paul is a lucky man!
ReplyDeleteI know you are vegetarian so this probably won't be something you'd want to do, BUT I have to relay anyway - I love mashed potatoes with everything, I found a recipe online that suggested boiling the potatoes (yukon golds) in chicken broth. After the taters are ready, drain most of the broth then save some of the broth to mash with the potatoes. Obviously, add milk or whipping cream - the end product is AMAZING. I couldn't believe the broth could do that to potatoes! I'm going to faint just thinking about how good they were.
You are such a good spouse! I could never cook chicken let alone butcher it! Good thing my Paul doesn't eat it anymore :)
ReplyDeleteI made steak for him once and he said it was the best steak he ever had (must have done something right).
Now what is Paul going to cook for you?