Roast Chicken

Whole chickens take up too much space in the freezer, so this one had to go. I used a combination of this recipe and this recipe to figure out what to do with it. To keep the breast moist I chopped up rosemary, lemon zest and garlic and mixed it with olive oil, then spread the mixture over the breast meat under the skin. For the rest of it I mixed mustard, rosemary and olive oil and spread it over the skin on the rest of the bird. I chopped up three turnips and cut the tops off two heads of garlic and tossed them into the roasting pan with a little oil, salt and pepper, and roasted the whole mess at 350-375 for an hour and a half or so.

After dinner the remaining carcass gets processed; extra meat goes in the fridge and everything else, skin, bones, innards, goes in a covered pot of water on the stove to simmer until bedtime. This gave me about three quarts of nice rich dark brown chicken broth. I should freeze it this time so it doesn't go to waste when I fail to make soup in the next couple of weeks.

I didn't decide to cook this 5-6 pound chicken for dinner until about 2 PM, so I thawed it in a tub of hot water in the sink. I changed the water two or three times and checked the inside cavity to make sure it wasn't icy and it seemed to be thoroughly unfrozen by 5:30.

The turnips were great roasted this way. I still don't understand why the garlic heads need to be cut open before roasting; the cloves that the knife missed always turn out fine. Next time I won't bother. The mustard sauce seemed a bit wasted since my household isn't big on chicken skin, but all that skin went into the broth and, I hope, added lots of flavor. It did make the skin a nice roasty brown. But next time everything goes under the skin and not on it.