A Chicken in Every Pot

Mmmmm, chicken for dinner. What a lovely thing. Not too heavy, it makes the house smell welcoming, and you can dress it up in so many different ways.  I am going to add a small chicken coop to my garden this spring and have been thinking through design plans.  It started out as a small enclosure on wheels so that I can move it around in my garden. The chickens will always be enclosed and safe from the plethora of predators that we have here on the ranch but they will have a roost, nesting boxes, and plenty of room to walk around and hunt for bugs and grass and other goodies.  This should house about 5 chickens comfortably and will supply us with plenty of our own eggs. 
Then I make the mistake of continuing to think on this subject. This is probably one of my biggest downfalls, yes, thinking.  Go ahead laugh.  "Boy, it would be really nice to supply our own chicken meat as well", I say innocently.  "Hmm, let's see we eat chicken about 3 times per week. We had thighs last night, hmmm, how many thighs does a chicken have? Two, of course.  There are four of us, so I would probably cook up eight thighs to help cover lunches the next day....that's four chickens worth of thighs!"
I took a great cooking class in Bellingham, WA and the chef mentioned that in Italy cooks will make a whole chicken stretch to cover three meals. "WHAT!"  Ok, yes, I'm American, I could eat less, but three meals out of one chicken??? He went on to explain that the first day the chicken would be poached or roasted and the meat de-boned. The carcass would be simmered with carrots, onion, celery and herbs to make a nice stock.  Two thirds of the meat or so would be used for a meal the first night. The second meal, the remainder of the meat would be used to make a pasta dish and the third meal would consist of a soup made from the stock.
The great thing about this is that buying a whole chicken at the grocery store is substantially less expensive and you are being a great steward of nature by effectively utilizing the whole animal.  Just by this method I have trimmed down my consumption from three chickens per week to one. Excellent!  Can you see where this is headed though...train wreck on track number 4.  One chicken per week x 52 weeks..."ummmm, no, I do not want 52 chickens in my backyard." That is a lot of chickens! Have you thought about that before? I had never thought that one through in that way. I would need a chicken mansion.
Utilizing my new and improved scaling back attitude, I am going back to the cute little, movable 5 chicken house.  I'm so proud of myself.

I have a great trick for you.  Next time you buy chicken, get a whole chicken and try this out.  It is a great way to spend less and get a product that has been processed less (it's not cut up at the factory) and have a wonderful meal on the table in less time than what you might think.  One struggle I have experienced with using a whole chicken is that it really does take longer to cook. They do not always cook evenly and can be hard to tell when they are done.  Here's a trick to try.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Get your kitchen scissors, a baking dish for the chicken and place your garbage can right next to your feet.  You do not want to be wandering around the kitchen touching things once you start working with raw chicken.
Remove your whole chicken from the plastic wrapping. I like to do this right in the sink to limit the mess.  Carefully, reach inside and remove the heart, giblets, neck, etc.  Set them aside.  I usually do not use them unless I am making a gravy. You can use the neck with the remainder of the bones when you make your chicken stock, if you wish.  Rinse the bird with cold water, inside and out. Again, being careful of sharp bones.  You need a good pair of kitchen scissors for this.   Basically, what you are going to do is cut out the backbone so that you can lay the chicken out flat. This really helps the chicken cook more evenly and quickly. 

Make the first cut, from head to tail up one side of the back bone.

Turn the bird around and make the second cut right up the other side.

Stay as close to the backbone as possible while making the cuts.  Once you have removed the backbone you can open the bird up almost flat,

If you were here in my kitchen I would show you how this chicken can dance.

Place your chicken in your baking dish and clean up your sink or the area where you have been working.  Wash your hands well. 

I like to make a rub with
1 Tablespon cumin
1 teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1-2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground mustard

Mix all of this in a small bowl. Using your hand, rub the spice mixture all over the chicken, between the skin and the meat.  This locks in the flavor, nicely.  Rub a bit of the spice mixture on the outside of the skin as well. Arrange your chicken breast up and as flat as possible, you may need to press down on it to help it a bit.  Bake in a 375 degree oven for about one hour, check for doneness in the breast with a meat thermometer. The chicken is done when the juices run clear. 

If you have time the morning of your chicken dinner you can prepare a brine to soak your chicken in for 4-6 hours. This really adds a lot of flavor and moisture.

I used about 8 cups of cold water, 1 cup of kosher salt, 1 cup of brown sugar, 1 Tablespoon black peppercorns, 1 teaspoons red pepper flakes, 1 Tablespoon cumin, 1 Tablespoon smoked paprika.   Mix to dissolve salt and sugar, place chicken in brine and put entire pot in the refrigerator for 4-6 hours. When ready, remove your chicken from the brine and discard the brine.  Rinse your chicken briefly and proceed with instructions above for rub.

Enjoy!