The Whole Chicken and Nothing But the Chicken

I've always found it to be a crappy deal when I buy bagged frozen chicken breasts at the store. I grew up with the ease of reaching into the freezer, pulling out a couple chicken breasts, popping them in the microwave to defrost and then adding them to a meal of choice. So easy! So quick! No mess and no hassle! Well except for the fact that it is a total rip off....

Let's do some math. At my local grocery store, you get 40 oz of "chicken" for anywhere up to $8.99 per bag. There are 16 oz in a lb so in a 40 oz bag, you get 2.5 lbs of chicken. What is the price per pound? $3.60!!! Sometimes Fred Meyer has whole chickens for .89 cents/lb... Thats a no brainer. I can get a 6 lb fresh chicken for a little over $5.

Not only is the price kind of whack but have you ever noticed the additives in the chicken in order to keep it tasty while frozen? Some brands are worse than others but frozen chicken can contain additional flavoring (in case it's not chickeny enough for your liking?), MSG, salt and sodium erythorbate. Here is a link to the USDA website that discusses the regulations of processing chicken.

Now let me give you one tiny piece of advice - don't trust the USDA!! You may be laughing, but it's ok, so am I. Obviously, we don't have a choice most of the time, but people die everyday from infected products that are supposedly inspected by the USDA. Even organic products aren't always as awesome as they seem. Just don't take any food products at face value; read the labels and the ingredients and contrast and compare different products. Also, if you are interested in doing some serious research into the funky ways that the US of A processes meat products check out the book "Eating Animals" by Jonathan Safran Foer. It'll get you squirming. You can also watch the documentary Food, Inc. which is an excellent depiction of how America manages and processes its food supply. For your information, I eat meat.

So back to my starting point. I love to buy whole fresh chickens and when I do, I will not waste any part of it. I recently learned how to carve a chicken and oddly enough, I love doing it. You can carve it raw or cooked and here is an excellent video on how to do it : How To Carve a Chicken.

Props

The following recipe for Honey Curry Chicken is my favorite! My mother-in-law passed it on to me and I now pass it on to you.

What you need:

1 raw whole chicken

1/3 C butter

1/3 C honey

2 T dijon or regular mustard

1 t salt

2 t curry powder

What to do:

Turn on a wonderful Pandora station! I suggest Heart or Blondie. 

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a glass container, heat the butter in the microwave until melted. Add the honey, mustard, salt and curry powder. Stir for about a minute until it is all combined and saucy. Feel free to taste it and add more curry or mustard until it's to your liking. Set aside. 

3. On a non-porous surface, carve your raw chicken. You should have two legs, two wings and two breasts. If you don't want to use all the chicken, save the extra pieces for a different meal. Cut off as much meat as possible and place it in a glass baking dish as you go. Save that carcass!! 

4. Pour the honey curry sauce over the chicken pieces and place the dish in the oven. 

5. Baste the chicken every 15 minutes and cook for an hour or until the chicken is completely cooked through. 

6. Serve the chicken with some rice and veggies. WHAM BAM YUM!

Now for that gnarly carcass. One of the greatest things you can do with this sucker is make your own homemade chicken broth! It's super easy and hassle-free... for the most part. Do you have a large boiling pot? Great! Do you have a crockpot? Even better!! All you need to do is place the carcass in your pot, add water to cover the carcass plus 1/2 inch. Add some chopped carrots, onion, celery, thyme, marjoram and oregano. If you are using a crockpot, set it to low and let it work its magic overnight while you sleep tight. If you are using a regular pot, let it simmer for 4-5 hours on the stove. 

When it's done, let it cool and refrigerate it so that the fat rises to the top and congeals. Scrape off the fat with a spoon and toss it. Divide the broth into individual containers by the cup or cups and freeze it for later use or use it right away! My broth yielded 8 cups and I used my first bit as a water substitute for cooking rice. The chicken broth is great for sauteing veggies, as a soup base and for flavoring other dishes. 

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