Daily Archives: October 10, 2013

Casseroles

Broccoli cheddar rice

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Everyone has days when they just don’t know what to make with dinner. Maybe you have a perfect roast in the crock pot, or stopped on the way home for burger meat but don’t know what to go with it. This is a recipe for one of my go-to side dishes, broccoli cheddar rice. A while back I posted on how to make it in a slow cooker, now I’ll tell you it can also be done in the oven! This was perfect because I had a whole chicken roasting in the oven, so I just whipped this up and popped it in there with it. Super simple, filling and tasty.

Ingredients:
1 cup rice
1 cup milk
1 cup water
1/2 cup shredded cheese
1 cup broccoli florets
About 3 tbsp butter/margerine
Garlic salt

I don’t know why it won’t let me flip the photo. I tried uploading it four times…

Step 1: Into an oven-safe dish (small-ish, or double/triple the recipe and use larger) pour 1 cup water, 1 cup milk and 1 cup rice. Mix it up well. Add a few tbsp margarine, broccoli and cheese on top.

 Step 2: Pop it in the oven at 350-375 for about 20-30 minutes (depends on the temp. I had it at 375 for the chicken so it only needed about 21 minutes to cook fully).

Full meal with the chicken, broccoli cheddar rice and candied carrots.
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Candied Carrots

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Everyone knows how hard it is sometimes to get kids to eat their vegetables. Heck, it’s hard to get adults to eat their vegetables! But my mom knew all the tricks and I remember several vegetable side dishes that we all actually enjoyed as kids. Candied carrots was always one of my favorites. Not only to carrots already have a naturally sweet-ish taste, but then you add butter and brown sugar, and it’s almost like dessert with dinner! Not exactly the healthiest thing in the world, but at least it will get some vitamin A and beta-carotene into your diet.

Ingredients:
3 large whole carrots, cut into 1/4 inch slices
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter (1 stick?)

 Step 1: Slice all the carrots (peel if you want, sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t. Always wash them first though) and place in a saucepot.
Step 2: Add the butter and brown sugar. Bring to a simmer, and cook, covered, for about 20 minutes, until the carrots are soft when poked with a fork.

That’s really all there is to it! They are soft and sweet and a perfect side dish for just about anything. If you have a favorite side dish from your childhood, or a way to cook vegetables such that kids and family members don’t complain, feel free to comment and share!

Finances, Healthy, Informative, Main Dishes

Oven Roasted Whole Chicken

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When I moved into my new apartment, I went on a stock-up grocery trip as I always do. One thing that was on sale was whole chicken (90 cents a pound or something). Since I had already brined and roasted a whole pheasant, I figured a whole chicken shouldn’t be much more difficult. So I got one and stuck it in the freezer.

Then one day I decided it was starting to get cold enough to count as fall, and chicken soup is great fall weather food! Of course, I roasted the meat and just enjoyed some tasty baked chicken meat first. The carcass is in the crock pot today to make stock for chicken soup.

I took out the bird, made a nice brine*, and roasted it the next day. And it turned out tender and amazing!

*If you don’t want to brine it overnight first, don’t worry about it. Skip right to the roasting part.

Ingredients for brine:

  • 1 cup salt
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • 1 cup pink moscato (because I had no open white wines)
  • 5 bay leaves
  • sprinkle garlic, sprinkle black pepper
  • About a gallon of water

Step 1: Mix all ingredients in a pot large enough to hold the whole bird. Add water to the top (once bird is added, not before, or you’ll spill everywhere. Not that I’ve ever done that…).

Step 2: Stick it in the refrigerator overnight (or at least for 4 hours. You can put it in there in the morning, head off to work and finish roasting it later that night too). I had to put my milk sideways on the bottom shelf to make room for a day, but I feel it is well worth the space-hogging.

Ingredients for the bird:

  • 1 whole frozen chicken, thawed overnight
  • Several gobs of margerine or butter
  • 1 whole apple, lemon, orange, and/or onion cut into quarters (I used one whole Gala apple)
  • Salt, pepper, and paprika

Step 3*: Take the bird out of the liquid, and pour the brine down the sink. Wipe off any moisture with a paper towel and place in a large baking pan. Rub it down all over with margarine. I despise raw chicken, so this part is super disgusting for me, but it is a necessary evil of epicuriosity. (*IF you skip brining, this is where to start)

Shove some butter chunks under the skin if you can too. If there are bits and pieces inside the cavity, take those out and dispose of or cook separately. Then sprinkle it all over with spices, and shove the aromatics (apple, onion, lemon) up the butt. Sorry, inside the cavity…

 

Step 4: Put the bird breast-side down into an oven at 425 for 15-20 minutes covered with aluminum foil. Flip it over, take the foil off, and roast uncovered for another 10-15 minutes. This will lead to a nice crispy outside skin. Then lower the heat to 375 for about another hour, or until the temperature is at least 165 F.

 

Once it’s all nicely browned and roasted, it looks and smells divine!

 

Take the aromatics you stuffed it with out and discard (or compost it). Use the meat any way you like! It is tender and moist and super flavorful. Not bad for $5 a bird.

 

I served it with broccoli cheddar rice and candied carrots on the side. Perfection.

Now I think I also need to work on learning how to properly carve the thing rather than just stabbing and sawing until a piece falls off…