WELCOME to the Official site of
Marty Rightmyer
Come visit our Ozark Mountain Home, Gilly Goat, PRF Farm. Yes, we live in a 100 year old Ozark Barn on the top of the Mountain. :)
Healthy Cooking
This Page is NOT about cooking goat-meat!
Granted we raise goats for the meat market but we don't eat it. Some say it is delicious but I can't really eat anything that I raise.
There have been quite a few young folks that have asked me about the way I cook on this mountain so, in a way, I'm trying to help our young adults learn a little about how us old fogies do it. It's back to basics with exceptional taste and is healthier then what you can get in fast food places or even the grocery store.
Today we are in the Autumn time, warn days and cooler nights. What better dinner then an Old Fashioned Roasted Stuffed Chicken? One nice big fat hen will feed 4 adults easily and we're going to use ALL of the Chicken.
It's important to know that fresh chicken, especially the skin on the chicken has properties that help your body. Chicken fat is good but you're not going to eat the fat or the skin. You use it to make other things and as I go along, I'll tell you how to do that. This time of the year is perfect for the good fats in Chicken. It's true, there is nothing better then a cup of hot chicken soup to help make you feel better when you catch a cold or flu.
The Menu: Roasted Stuffed Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Cream Peas with baby Onions in a white gravy. ( don't frown, it's good) Some Cranberry Sauce and for desert, if we have room in the belly department, Butter Cream Cupcakes I made yesterday.
This Bird is ready for the oven
Before I get into how to get to this point of prepping chicken, it's a good time to remind you that it's not how much you eat but the quality of what you eat. To sit down at dinner with the intention of stuffing yourself, is wrong. Eat for taste not to make yourself miserable. Chickens are small, cook enough for your family but don't make so much that you feel obligated to eat every single piece of it. Mix up the dinner with vegetables and eat in moderation. If you JUST CAN'T do that, take away your plate and replace it with a saucer. Fill that saucer up and DON'T go back for seconds. Don't throw away the bones of the breast and back when the bird is picked, that make another dish later on.
This particular Chickie came from a local farmer that raises chickens but a good bird from the grocery store is just fine as long as it is fresh, not frozen and has a nice yellow hue to the skin. If you are buying for later cooking, take it home and freeze it in YOUR freezer.
I pick the bird at the grocery store by color, freshness and then price. While looking, my mind is reeling ahead to another meal with it. If I can't get at least two meal out of the bird, I buy a bigger one.
First is to give the bird a bath and rinse out the insides. There's usually a packet in them, even farm raised ones, that have the gizzard, heart, liver and neck in a bag, never get one that is in plastic. If you don't know, ask the butcher in the store. Take that out and soak those parts in slightly salted warm water for about 30 minutes while you get the rest of the bird ready. Pat the bird dry with a paper towel. Wet chicken skin, doesn't cook well.
While the bird is getting to room temperature and covered in a paper towel, make your stuffing. Now is the good part, a pinch of this and a dab of that but just do it to your taste.
Stuffing: It's easy to make this, first toast 4 slices of bread, cube it up and set aside. In a small frying pan put 1 Tablespoon of REAL BUTTER in and melt. To that add 1 chopped up med onion and a half a stalk of chopped celery. Gently fry it till it is caramelized and browned. Now for the spices: A pinch of powdered sage, salt and pepper, and about 1/2 teaspoon of Old Bay Spice. The original one but sometimes I use the Garlic and Herb old spice. The results will astound you. All of the spiced steam up through the bird. It doesn't taste like it smells either.
Lastly is a teaspoon of dried or fresh parsley. Fresh is always best.To this, add about a half of a cup of water and bring it to simmer, just barely bubbling. In the same pan, add the cubed up toast it soaks up the wetness fast. Try using dark Rye Bread, it's outstanding. Mush it up and then, add an egg and mush more. If it is to dry, add more warm water. Stuff the bird. Get it all in there too. If you have left over, bake it in a separate dish but only for 3o min or so toward the end of chicken baking time. Set your creation in a pan and cover with aluminum foil, a lid makes the bird soggy out. Bake in a 325 degree oven for about 2 hours. When you check on it at the end of the time, if the top is not browned crispy, take the foil off for a few minutes while it is still baking.
Now look at all of the juices under that chicken. Put the chicken on top of the stove and let it cool down. As it does, you'll notice the liquid gets filmy. Skim that part off with a big spoon and set it aside for later. You want this chicken to cool down as the rest of your dinner is cooked. It's hot so be careful.
Preparing the peas and onions. Cook these in a shallow frying pan. First use a Tablespoon of REAL BUTTER and melt it. When it is melted, add some salt and pepper and just enough flour to thicken a bit. Don't make a paste. Quickly after the flour, add a cup of milk and don't touch it, don't stir it. Turn down the heat and let it simmer. As it bubbles you'll see it thicken. When you do, add the peas and onions then stir just to coat them. Let that gently bubble away. (You can put frozen peas in at this point. It doesn't take them long to cool. Right about now the chicken is ready and the potatoes ready to mash.
Mashed Potatoes: Strain off the water in the pot. Mash them in their cooking pot, not another dish. They stay warmer longer.
Put the bird on a serving plate, scoop it right up out of that pan. Return the pan to the stove and skim off more of that chicken fat and put in the cup. Turn the burner on and let what is left come up to a simmer. Stir in some flour, about a teaspoon to start, salt and pepper and keep stirring till it gets to be thick gravy. Slice jellied cranberry and put on the table.
Call everyone to your set table and make them sit down. There is NO bread and butter at this meal. All of the grains your body needs are in the stuffing and flour used in the rest of the foods so don't even put it on the table. Watch your carbs.
I personally have hot Green tea or Lady Earl tea with my dinners. It helps me digest it quicker.
Finally, let someone else do the dishes, you take your tea in the other room, put your feet up and pat yourself on the back. Beware, men have a tendency to want to go to sleep after such a meal. Make them go clean the barn! :) Enjoy.
Part 2 The left oversBar-B-Que ChickenLeft over chicken is picked off the bones and put in a freezer proof container. Over that is poured Bar-B-Que sauce, out of a bottle or your own.I use Kraft Original and start to Doctor it with cut up baby onions, brown sugar and lemon juice to water it up a bit. The the lid goes on and into the freezer. When the time comes, it's thawed out, more sauce and light the grille. Quick and easy.Now that's two meals out of one chicken. The gravy, stock and picked bones are simmering. After 30 minutes of simmering, pick out the bones and call the dog. To the pot add chopped onions, chopped carrots, chopped celery, cubed raw potato and left over peas and onions with the sauce. Some of the chicken breast is in there too. To that pot I added sea salt and will let it simmer until the potatoes are done then thicken up the broth with flour or corn starch, about 1/2 a teaspoon.To add flour or cornstarch, take 1/4 cup of juice out of the pot and put in a cup, stir in the flour or corn starch and make a loose paste and return all of it to the pot and stir up. It thickens quickly.Tomorrow is Chicken Pot Pie for Dinner so stay tuned for tomorrow.Three meals came out of One chicken. Good Eating, healthy and Home Cooked. Bon-appetite.
