Showing posts with label pollo asado. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pollo asado. Show all posts

Saturday, May 19, 2018

ME AND A ROAST CHICKEN

Mornings when I go into town for aerobics and shopping, I often park on the edge of the village in front of a strip of restaurants. At one end is a take-away roast-chicken joint. By the time I return to the car, the rotisseries are all fired up and the smell of herb-roasted fowl wafts up and down the street. It’s the most mouth-watering aroma imaginable. Roast chicken is irresistible, inevitable. 


The pleasure of a whole roast chicken! There will be leftovers! The chicken is stuffed with herbs and rubbed with garlic and pimentón before roasting. (The crispy bits are browned garlic.)

I tell myself that for the same price as la Gallega’s rotisserie chicken (a Galician woman is the roast-master)--€8.00 or about $9.45—I could buy a much larger free-range bird and roast it myself. Not the instant gratification, but a better deal in the long run.

The problem is that this week my family is away. It’s just me and a five-pound roast chicken. Will I be bored with chicken before the leftovers are gone?

Here’s how it’s going.


Roast chicken dinner for one--juicy thigh, pan-roasted carrots and potatoes. I'm not big on gravy, so I'm serving the chicken with mango chutney.

Leftovers! How many meals?


The chicken dismantled. I'll pick all the meat off the bones and use the carcass to make roast chicken broth, a base for soups.
The rewards! Chunks of chicken to add to my lunch salad.

Dinner on day two: chicken curry with coconut milk and mango. I used the meat from the other roasted thigh. The sauce is made with black mustard seed, fresh ginger, garlic, green chilies, curry powder and tomatoes.

Roast-chicken soup for lunch the following day. I added shredded spinach to the broth along with the cut-up roast potatoes and carrots and scrappy bits of chicken picked off the bones.

Dinner, day three. A quarter chicken breast sliced and served with mujammara walnut sauce and taboulleh salad made with bulgur. (Recipe for the walnut sauce is below.)

Day four: spicy Moroccan tagine with chicken legs, salty preserved lemon, olives, carrots and zucchini.

A lunch dish for one or starter for two--orange, chicken, olive and onion salad, an adaptation of a Spanish recipe, remojón. (Recipe below.)

Day five: Asian noodles with chicken and cashews. The last of the chicken breast is added to a stir-fry of vegetables, and served with rice noodles or zucchini noodles, topped with a hot and tangy dressing. (Recipe below.)

Day six. Only some shredded meat from the chicken wings left to go in this spicy Mexican tortilla soup. I wasn’t going to open a packet of corn tortillas for a single serving, so I substituted a few corn chips from a snack pack.With diced avocado, radishes, scallions and sliced jalapeño peppers, the soup makes a fun meal.


Roast Chicken, Home Style
Pollo Asado Casero


1 large roasting chicken (5 pounds)
Salt
Freshly-ground black pepper
Sprigs of thyme and rosemary.
1 bay leaf
1 lemon
2 cloves garlic
½ teaspoon smoked pimentón (paprika)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
Carrots and potatoes (optional)

Sprinkle the chicken generously with salt and pepper, inside and out. Leave it uncovered in the refrigerator for 3 hours.

Remove chicken from the fridge. Push sprigs of herbs and bay leaf inside the chicken’s cavity. Juice ½ lemon and reserve the juice. Cut remaining half in wedges and place inside the chicken.

Crush the garlic with pimentón, lemon juice and oil. Rub this mixture all over the chicken’s skin. Tie the legs together close to the body. Place in a roasting pan and allow the chicken to come to room temperature, 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400ºF.

Place chicken in the oven for 10 minutes. Lower oven temperature to 350ºF. After 30 minutes, add carrots and potatoes, if using. (Coat them with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper before adding to the roasting pan.) Roast the chicken until it reaches an internal temperature of 160ºF when tested with an instant-read thermometer in the thickest part of the thigh. (A 5-pound chicken will need approximately 1 ½ hours total roasting time.)

Remove chicken to a cutting board and allow it to set 10 minutes before carving.

Mujammara Walnut Sauce
Salsa de Nueces

Mujammara walnut sauce to serve with chicken or as a dip.

 Mujammara is a Turkish sauce of roasted red peppers and walnuts that reminds me of Catalan romesco. My version is an adaptation easily made in a food processor with canned piquillo peppers. It’s gorgeous with sliced chicken and goes well with kebabs and grilled fish. Use it as a dip with bread sticks or vegetable dippers.

The recipe makes about 1 cup of sauce, more than is needed for one serving of chicken. Keep it tightly covered in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Piquillo peppers for sauce.
½ cup walnuts
1 (185-gram/ 6 ½ -oz) can piquillo peppers
2 cloves garlic
¼ teaspoon cumin
¼ teaspoon hot pimentón or pinch cayenne
1 tablespoon lemon juice
½ teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil


Grind the walnuts in a mini food processor. Add the piquillo peppers, garlic, cumin, pimentón, lemon juice and salt. Blend to make a thick paste. Blend in the oil to make a smooth sauce. 


Chicken and Orange Salad with Olives
Remojón con Pollo y Aceitunas

Chicken instead of cod in this Andalusian salad.

Remojón (also known as salmorejo or ensalada malagueña) is an exotic salad of oranges, olives, onions and salt cod. In this version, I’ve swapped chicken for the cod.

Use any kind of olive for this salad. Brine-cured black or purple ones are the most dramatic looking, but cracked green olives, pitted or not, are traditional with remojón salad.

Serves 2 as a starter or 1 as a main dish.

1 cup diced cooked chicken breast
2 tablespoons orange juice
1 tablespoon Sherry vinegar
½ teaspoon salt
Red pepper flakes, to taste
2 small cooked potatoes, quartered
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil plus more for drizzling on salad
Salad greens
½ large orange, peeled and sliced
½ avocado, sliced
12 olives
Sliced red onion or scallions
Coarse salt
Chopped chives to garnish


Place the diced chicken in a bowl. Add the orange juice, vinegar, ½ teaspoon salt, red pepper flakes and quartered potatoes. Stir in 2 tablespoons oil. Cover and marinate the chicken, refrigerated, at least 2 hours or up to 8 hours.

Drizzle with more oil.


Spread salad greens on one or two salad plates. Arrange the orange and avocado slices on the greens. Spoon the marinated chicken on top along with all of the marinade. Scatter olives and sliced onion on top of the chicken. Drizzle more olive oil over the salad. Sprinkle with coarse salt and chopped chives.






Asian Noodles with Chicken and Cashews
Fideos Estilo Asiatico con Pollo y Anacardos




This makes more sauce than needed for one serving. Refrigerate the sauce and use for steak, shrimp or tofu.

Serves 1.

3 cloves garlic, minced
4 tablespoons lime or lemon juice
1 ½ tablespoons Asian fish sauce, such as nuoc mam
2 teaspoons Asian chile paste, such as sambal oelek
Sugar or stevia
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons cashews
1 shallot, sliced
¼ red bell pepper, slivered
½ cup cooked green beans
1 cup diced cooked chicken
½ cup boiling water
Cooked rice noodles or zucchini noodles
Mint leaves
Basil leaves
Cilantro leaves
Grated Carrot


In a heat-proof bowl combine the garlic, lime juice, fish sauce, chile paste and sweetener. Set aside.

Heat the oil in a small skillet. Toss the cashews in the oil until they are golden. Remove them and reserve. Add the shallot and bell pepper to the skillet and stir-fry 3 minutes. Add the green beans and toss them with the shallots. Add the chicken and cook until heated.

Stir the boiling water into the garlic-lime-chile paste. Place the noodles in a bowl. Top with the heated chicken. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of the garlic-chile sauce on top. Scatter a few mint, basil and cilantro leaves on top. Add a grating of carrot. Scatter cashews over all. Serve hot, warm or cold.

Related recipes:

Saturday, September 24, 2016

SUMMER’S DONE; TURN ON THE OVEN

I have a house rule—no turning on the oven from June till September. With the first day of fall and a somewhat cooler kitchen, I am so excited to roast a chicken again! 


Burnished roast chicken, an autumnal pleasure.

When my kids were growing up, roast chicken was a favorite easy, weeknight meal. While the boys were doing homework and baths, I would bung a whole, small chicken in the oven with nothing more than a scattering of thyme and chopped garlic, salt and pepper. In a little more than an hour, dinner was on the table.

Now, I seek out free-range chicken, much larger than those battery-raised supermarket birds. They’re much more expensive and take longer to roast, so chicken is a special dish.

The first day of fall also marks my switch from the chilled rosado (rosé wine) that I favour in torrid summer weather to tinto (red wine). As I select a robust Rioja crianza—a red wine from La Rioja with a little time on oak (this one is tempranillo with a little garnacha), I recall that the most famous dish of La Rioja was the one that didn’t get eaten--a roast chicken set before the town magistrate of Santo Domingo de la Calzada back in the 14th century.

The story goes that a youth who was traveling with his family on a pilgrimage to the holy shrine of Santiago stopped over at an inn in Santo Domingo and was framed by a scheming girl, possibly because he spurned her advances.

The girl placed a piece of silver in his rucksack, then falsely accused the boy of thievery. He was sentenced and hanged for the crime. But his parents heard his voice calling out from the gallows, saying he was still alive.

They rushed to tell the town magistrate, who was just sitting down to a dinner of roast chicken. He dismissed their claims, “Your son is as alive as this chicken that I am about to eat.” With that the chicken hopped from the plate and began clucking and strutting about. The boy, indeed, was still alive and was released. The saying goes, “Santo Domingo de la Calzada, que cantó la gallina despues de asada,” where “the chicken cackled after it was roasted.”


Dinner from the oven--roast chicken with chorizo and sweet potatoes. Pour some red Rioja wine to go with it.


Chorizo sausage adds color and flavor to the chicken and pan sauce.
La Rioja is also known for vivid displays of red choricero peppers hung from balconies to dry in the fall. These peppers are used for flavoring the region’s chorizo sausages. That gives me the idea to use chunks of chorizo to flavor the roast chicken.

And, now that I’ve turned on the oven, I might as well roast some sweet potatoes, the first of the season.

First of the season--locally-grown sweet potatoes.

Roast Chicken with Chorizo
Pollo Asado con Chorizo

Roast chicken is juicy, basted with chorizo fat.

Use chorizo link sausage, the slightly soft type that is best for grilling and stewing. (Dry-cured chorizo is best sliced as a cold-cut rather than used in cooking.) If chorizo is not available, use a spoonful of pimentón (paprika) mixed with olive oil for basting the chicken.

The pan drippings with chorizo fat are good spooned over potatoes or other vegetables. 

Herbs, garlic and chorizo are stuffed in the bird's cavity. On the left are dried choricero peppers, used to flavor chorizo.

4 ½ - 5 pound chicken
Salt
Freshly-ground black pepper
Bay leaves
Thyme sprigs
Rosemary sprig
Lemon slice
3 cloves garlic, lightly crushed
3 chorizo sausages (7 ounces)
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ cup white wine


Sprinkle the chicken inside and out with salt and pepper. Allow to stand 30 minutes.

Tie the bay leaves, thyme and rosemary into a bouquet and insert in the chicken’s cavity with the lemon slice and (unpeeled) garlic.

Slice the chorizo. Heat oil in a small skillet and fry the chorizo, turning to brown both sides. Tilt the pan and skim out the chorizo. Save the fat in the pan.

Preheat oven to 425ºF.

Use chorizo pan drippings to baste the chicken.
Stuff the chorizo into the chicken cavity with the herbs. Tie the legs together and set in a roasting pan. Brush the chicken all over with the fat rendered from the chorizo. Roast 30 minutes.

Baste the chicken with pan drippings. Lower oven temperature to 350ºF. Roast 30 minutes more.

Baste the chicken again with pan drippings. Pour over the wine. Roast chicken 30 minutes more or until juices run clear.

Remove chicken to a platter or cutting board and allow to rest 15 minutes before carving. Discard the bunch of herbs. Place the chorizo on serving platter with the chicken. Peel the garlic cloves and use them as garnish. Serve the pan juices in a separate bowl.





More recipes for roast chicken:

Lemon-roasted chicken.
Roast stuffed chicken.

and, for Potatoes, La Rioja Style (with chorizo) http://mykitcheninspain.blogspot.com.es/2010/04/potatoes-from-canary-islands-to-la.html