Chix

Roast a Chicken, make it work for 3 meals.

I've been getting about a 5 lb organic chicken each week. I salt it at least 2 hrs before (my friend Charles taught me this.) Lately I've just roasted it with salt and pepper and sliced and served it with garlicky sauteed spinach. I've been on a mayonnaise kick, making my own from Martha Stewart's recipe. If I had known how simple it was I would have given up store bought mayo years ago. Day two of roasted chiken we pull it apart and mix in parsley, peppers, pinoli nuts, whatever we feel like, the mayo and a fabulous chicken salad appears. You'll see me write about mini pita pockets a lot and this is because S will eat almost anything in a "pocket," and she'd eat cardboard if it had mayo on it. Like father like daughter.

R has been taking the chicken carcass and giblets after we make the chicken salad and making delicious stock. So on day three we have kitchen sink soup where I've thrown in spinach, beans, carrots, corn, peas, leftover roasted veggies, anything.

Roasted Chicken:

Pat dry and rub with 1-2tbs butter or olive oil
Sprinkle with Kosher salt at least 2 hrs before
Roast approx 1 hr at 350/400/450 (My oven has a mind of its own so I have to watch it and turn it up to 450 at the end to get the skin crispy. Hey, it's a rental.)

Mayonaise:
adapted from Martha Stewart, The Martha Stewart Cookbook

Place the following in food processor or blender:
2 eggs
1/4 tsp dry mustard
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tbs fresh lemon juice (I like even more, yum)

With machine on, slowly add the following in a steady stream until desired thickness:
1/2 c light olive oil
1 1/2 c vegetable or safflower oil

This will last in a jar for up to a week. I halve the recipe sometimes if I know we won't use it up in a week's time.

Chicken Salad:

Pull chicken from a roasted chicken (add skin too for an extra rich salad, mmmm.)
Mix with ANY of the following: chopped peppers, onions, grapes, nuts, apple, parsley, etc.
Fold in desired amount of homemade mayonnaise, salt and pepper
Serve on mini whole wheat pita pockets for the younger set!

Chicken Stock:

Carcass from picked apart chicken from the chix salad above
Giblets (note: the liver will make it cloudy but I like the flavor, some don't)
2 carrots, whole
1 stalk celery, whole
2 shallots or 1 lg onion, with skin, or both for rich oniony flavor
1 tsp peppercorns
1 bay leaf

Simmer for about 2 hrs or until your home is sufficiently smelling like heaven.
Let it cool, remove and discard solids and put stock in fridge for tomorrow night.

Tomorrow Night:

Remove any fat that has coagulated and simmer until reduced to desired flavor. Don't salt until you've reduced because you could risk over salting it.

We've been know to add any of the following, (more suggestions welcome.)

Alphabet pasta
cous cous
onions, carrots, celery, tomatoes
spinach, kale, chard
leftover veggies
frozen veggies, like peas
mushrooms
grated cheese on top