Wednesday, May 6, 2015

what came first?

I know I said I wasn't going to talk about food (much), but since I approach cooking pretty much the same way as a craft project, which is to dive right in whether I know what I am doing or not. I usually will try doing my own thing and if it doesn't work out, then I look to the experts.

Recently some friends gave us 3 frozen chickens, they had some of their old hens that weren't laying many eggs anymore butchered. I really had no idea how to cook them, but I figured I would just roast them and make soup out of them. So I thawed one out and stuck it in a roasting bag and cooked it the recommended amount of time. I thought I could use some of the breast meat to make chicken and biscuits, then use the rest of it for soup.
 HA! That bird was so tough, I could barely cut through the skin to even get to the meat! Even my sharp, heavy duty kitchen knife had trouble with it. All I could think of while wrestling with it was "This must be what it is like cooking a dinosaur!". When I finally got to the meat and could hack off a piece, I tasted it.

And I yelled down the stairs to Vince "Hey! Guess what dinosaur tasted like? A 4 year old laying hen!"

so what came first, the chicken or the dinosaur?

I did make soup out of it, and it came out really good. I then proceeded to do some research on line on how to cook these tough old birds. The key is to cook them long at a low temperature in a dutch oven. I did that with the 2nd one and it came out great, actually edible before making soup out of it.

this was the third try, I forgot to put the recommended cup of water in it before roasting it for 3 and 1/2 hours! It was a little dry, but again, made awesome soup!


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