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Tuesday, February 14, 2012

An Easy Way to Deal With (Cook) Whole Chickens

Ever since I began buying those bargain whole chickens from Rami Levi, I found that my preparation time had increased much too much. At Rami Levi, cutting those bargain chickens into serving pieces cost a lot of money, making the chickens too expensive to be considered a real bargain.  I have some sharp knives inherited from my mother-in-law's kitchen, so that part of cutting wasn't the problem.  It still takes a long time and makes a big mess.

A few weeks ago, I tried a new technique.


As you can see, I just opened them up from one side,  aka butterfly, which is actually the way they come because of pre-sale cleaning and kashering.  It's always easier to carve the chicken after cooking.  This picture was taken just before the chickens made it into the oven. 

You can also make a faux stuffed chicken by putting various vegetables and "stuffing" under the chickens inside the empty space.  It may not be as impressive, but it can taste great and is easy to prepare and serve.
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5 comments:

  1. Rachel14/2/12 09:00

    May I suggest using kitchen shears? I hated cutting up chickens with knives, but then I bought a pair of poultry scissors and never looked back. So quick, so easy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ed Greenberg14/2/12 14:14

    I started doing this recently and I love it. I can spice the entire chicken and have the skin come out crispy, not like the soggy bottom side when cooked sitting on the backbone.

    I like the idea of hiding stuffing or other goodies underneath, but since I put the chciken on a rack, I'm not sure how to accomplish that. Keeping the chicken on a rack keeps it from getting soggy and lets the drippings fall into the gravy.

    We roast the chicken with an orange-juice and chicken-soup mix, with diced onions, garlic and maybe moushrooms, on the bottom of the pan, and we get a nice gravy that way.

    This comment makes me think of Shabbos.

    Ed

    ReplyDelete
  3. Batya14/2/12 14:23

    Rachel I have those, too, but roasting butterfly is even easier than cutting raw with shears.
    Ed, I don't use a rack, just the paper and take it out when still hot so the juices can be left in the pan if desired.

    ReplyDelete
  4. David Tzohar14/2/12 20:34

    A couple of years ago I posted my recipe for boiled stuffed chicken that cooks overnight on the shabbat platte (shabbos gedempte hin). I think that I sent it to KCC. The stuffing is from onions and kasha. It is one of my favorite dishes but it requires a lot of preparation. I wouldn't make it for stam a weekday meal.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Batya14/2/12 20:52

    David sounds familiar. I can't remember how many (could it be decades?) since I cooked fleishig from scratch during the week. I cook all the poultry we'll need and I recook with veggies.

    ReplyDelete

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