Sunday dinner - Whole Sage Chicken with Creamed Spinach and Honey Glazed Carrots
Sunday dinner: Whole sage chicken with creamed spinach and honey glazed carrots
Ingredient list:
1 natural young fresh chicken
1 bag of carrots
1 bag of celery stalks
Pam olive oil spray
Fresh sage leaves
Fresh thyme
Fresh rosemary
Fresh mushrooms, sliced thick
1 bag or box of baby spinach
1/4 c cream cheese
1/4 tsp Ground nutmeg
1 - 2 tbsp honey
salt
white pepper
Directions:
I start with a "natural young fresh chicken", bought at the local Kroger. Cut it out of the bag with kitchen scissors (ones you only use for the kitchen) and you will discover a bag of giblets in the cavity. (Note: always wash your dish drainer with bleachy soapy water if you set the chicken on it! Oops.)
No I wont make you eat this if you think its gross. Use it for stock, later. Here's how:
Pull the giblets bag out of the chicken, as shown above, and dump the contents into a small saucepot.
Here is how to peel and cut a carrot, for those that have not done it. Get yourself a veg peeler and a cutting board for this job.
Grip the end of the carrot and slide the sharp edge along the carrot to peel. Lean the carrot on the cutting board so the peelings go on it.
With a butcher knife, cut off the ends of the carrot and discard.
Cut into coins.
For large ends of the carrots, first cut them lengthwise, then cut them into half coins.
Here are the chopped carrots and celery for the small saucepot.
On to the chicken!
Place it into a baking dish. I use a glass pyrex 9x13 size.
Put sage leaves under the skin, both sides. You will need to separate the skin, partially, to fit them in. Tuck them in under the skin, make sure none stick out.
End up with the chicken breast side down (above is breast side up). This ensures tender white meat.
Spray with olive oil spray. I use Pam.
You can also pour it on, but I find it rather uneven and use too much.
Add salt and white pepper if you wish.
Put an inch of water in the baking pan.
Bake for 1 hour, setting a timer to remind you.
Meantime when the giblets are grey, turn off the burner and let them cool. The heart is good to eat, but the rest of the giblets I toss out. But SAVE THE STOCK and VEGETABLES.
Once the chicken has cooked an hour, its nearly done.
Note you can see the sage now, under the skin.
At this point, I added the chopped mushrooms at the bottom of the pan and made sure they all got into the broth so they would not dry out.
Meantime put all of the young spinach from a plastic box or bag, in 2 inches of water in a large frying pan, set to medium heat. It will reduce a lot, and has natural salt, DO NOT ADD SALT.
Add more carrots to water. About 1 chopped carrot per person.
Cook both for about 20 minutes while the chicken finishes.
When the chicken is done, take it out of the oven to rest. Grab the really thick oven mitts for this, please.
Next turn off the spinach, as it should just about be out of water. Add cream cheese.
While the pan is hot, mix the cheese in and add nutmeg. This is ready to serve.
Now turn off the carrots and dump out any left over water into the giblet stock.
Add the honey and keep cooking until the liquid absorbs. Watch it, honey is sweet and will burn if you take your eyes off it.
Finally, cutting the chicken.
It can be best described as grabbing the leg and thigh, dislocating the legs by pulling them back toward the back until you hear a pop. Cut any skin that has not cracked off in the process. Almost no cutting.
Then flip the bird (ha! you knew i had to say it!) over and cut down the breast bone to get to the white meat.
We dont eat the sage leaves under the skin, but you can, it wont hurt you.
Here is the finished product.
What do I do with the chicken carcass? I add that to a large stockpot along with the stock the baking pan kept, all its bits and pieces, the mushrooms too, the giblet stock and vegetables. Then I add 3 small saucepots of water to the big pot. Then on low heat, I cook until the water is halfway down.
This is your stock. It is not broth because now it contains bone marrow from having cooked the carcass in the water.
Strain and keep the stock in spaghetti jars that you've washed out and saved....or get some mason jars, either way. :)
Discard the veg and bones. You can use the meat if you have any left, to add to the stock and some noodles, new chopped carrot and celery, and you have chicken noodle soup.
The stock when cold will turn to a sort of Jelly. Scoop it out with a spoon and use this for making mashed potatoes instead of using a lot of cream, or add when making soups or gravies. You can also freeze it in those jars.
Enjoy!
Ingredient list:
1 natural young fresh chicken
1 bag of carrots
1 bag of celery stalks
Pam olive oil spray
Fresh sage leaves
Fresh thyme
Fresh rosemary
Fresh mushrooms, sliced thick
1 bag or box of baby spinach
1/4 c cream cheese
1/4 tsp Ground nutmeg
1 - 2 tbsp honey
salt
white pepper
Directions:
I start with a "natural young fresh chicken", bought at the local Kroger. Cut it out of the bag with kitchen scissors (ones you only use for the kitchen) and you will discover a bag of giblets in the cavity. (Note: always wash your dish drainer with bleachy soapy water if you set the chicken on it! Oops.)
Giblets in a bag.
Pull the giblets bag out of the chicken, as shown above, and dump the contents into a small saucepot.
Add water, 1 carrot - chopped, 1 celery rib - chopped, 1 sage leaf, 1 snip of rosemary, 1 snip of thyme. It will look like this:
Skip ahead if you know how, already.
Here is how to peel and cut a carrot, for those that have not done it. Get yourself a veg peeler and a cutting board for this job.
Grip the end of the carrot and slide the sharp edge along the carrot to peel. Lean the carrot on the cutting board so the peelings go on it.
With a butcher knife, cut off the ends of the carrot and discard.
Cut into coins.
Here are the chopped carrots and celery for the small saucepot.
Again, the saucepot ready to boil:
On to the chicken!
Place it into a baking dish. I use a glass pyrex 9x13 size.
End up with the chicken breast side down (above is breast side up). This ensures tender white meat.
Spray with olive oil spray. I use Pam.
You can also pour it on, but I find it rather uneven and use too much.
Add salt and white pepper if you wish.
Put an inch of water in the baking pan.
Bake for 1 hour, setting a timer to remind you.
Meantime when the giblets are grey, turn off the burner and let them cool. The heart is good to eat, but the rest of the giblets I toss out. But SAVE THE STOCK and VEGETABLES.
Once the chicken has cooked an hour, its nearly done.
Note you can see the sage now, under the skin.
At this point, I added the chopped mushrooms at the bottom of the pan and made sure they all got into the broth so they would not dry out.
Meantime put all of the young spinach from a plastic box or bag, in 2 inches of water in a large frying pan, set to medium heat. It will reduce a lot, and has natural salt, DO NOT ADD SALT.
Add more carrots to water. About 1 chopped carrot per person.
Cook both for about 20 minutes while the chicken finishes.
When the chicken is done, take it out of the oven to rest. Grab the really thick oven mitts for this, please.
Next turn off the spinach, as it should just about be out of water. Add cream cheese.
While the pan is hot, mix the cheese in and add nutmeg. This is ready to serve.
Now turn off the carrots and dump out any left over water into the giblet stock.
Add the honey and keep cooking until the liquid absorbs. Watch it, honey is sweet and will burn if you take your eyes off it.
Finally, cutting the chicken.
It can be best described as grabbing the leg and thigh, dislocating the legs by pulling them back toward the back until you hear a pop. Cut any skin that has not cracked off in the process. Almost no cutting.
Then flip the bird (ha! you knew i had to say it!) over and cut down the breast bone to get to the white meat.
We dont eat the sage leaves under the skin, but you can, it wont hurt you.
Here is the finished product.
What do I do with the chicken carcass? I add that to a large stockpot along with the stock the baking pan kept, all its bits and pieces, the mushrooms too, the giblet stock and vegetables. Then I add 3 small saucepots of water to the big pot. Then on low heat, I cook until the water is halfway down.
This is your stock. It is not broth because now it contains bone marrow from having cooked the carcass in the water.
Strain and keep the stock in spaghetti jars that you've washed out and saved....or get some mason jars, either way. :)
Discard the veg and bones. You can use the meat if you have any left, to add to the stock and some noodles, new chopped carrot and celery, and you have chicken noodle soup.
The stock when cold will turn to a sort of Jelly. Scoop it out with a spoon and use this for making mashed potatoes instead of using a lot of cream, or add when making soups or gravies. You can also freeze it in those jars.
Enjoy!
Great !
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