Chicken Challenge: First Meal--Roasted Chicken

The first meal I made in the Whole Chicken Challenge was a roasted chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy and asparagus.  All told, I spent under $10, and we had lots of leftovers, which I plan to use to make Green-Chile Chicken Enchiladas.  This meal would have easily fed 4 people (although I would've bought 2 bundles of asparagus if I had been expecting 2 more people).

Here is the cost breakdown for the whole meal:

One whole chicken: $5.25
Asparagus: $2.10
Potatoes (3 big bakers): $0.96
One can chicken broth: $0.98 (I had it on hand, actually)
Total: $9.29   Price per serving: $2.32

Here is the recipe for the chicken.  I will post the sides separately.

Roasted Chicken 

Ingredients:
One whole chicken
Salt
Pepper
1 Tbsp. soft butter

1.  Take the chicken out of the packaging and pull out the stuff they put inside the cavity.  You will likely find a heart, a gizzard, a neck and a liver.  I'm strange (apparently), so I cook and eat the heart and gizzard.  I throw away the liver, but save the neck for making chicken stock, which we will do tomorrow.  Rinse with cool water and pat dry with paper towels.
2.  Using a SHARP knife or kitchen shears, cut out the backbone of the chicken.  Just cut through the ribs along either side of the backbone.  It gets a little tricky at the end where the wishbone is located.  Had I planned ahead, I could've posted photos, so I will direct you to the tons of videos on YouTube of chickens being cut apart.  Save the backbone for stock.
3.  Take off the wings with your knife or scissors, and set them aside for stock.  You should now have a chicken breast with legs on it, essentially.
4.  Using your fingers, gently separate the skin from the breast.  Put some salt under there and rub it around for even coverage.  Then salt and pepper the outside of the chicken (both sides).  Rub the tablespoon of butter over the breast and thighs/drumsticks.
5.  Place chicken in a roasting pan breast-side up.  I use a cast-iron grill pan, but any oven-safe pan or dish will work.  Roast in a 400-degree oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the size of your chicken.  Mine was pretty big, so it roasted for almost an hour.  Let it rest on a plate or cutting board for at least 10 minutes before carving.

"But Caitlin, how do I know when my chicken is done?"  The Government says that your chicken is cooked when the thighs reach 180 degrees and the breast 170 degrees.  In my experience, that is too high.  The thigh meat will be fine, but the rest will be really dry.  I say go about 10 degrees less; any pathogens will be killed at around 150, but if you're really paranoid or in a "sensitive group" (you know who you are), take it to 180.  The choice is yours.  Of course, if you don't have a meat thermometer, you're just going to have to take it on faith that it's done when the juices run clear.  I'm pretty cavalier about the whole thing--I have several thermometers, but I never use them for chicken.

If you've never roasted a chicken before, you should try it--even if you are a chicken nugget kinda person.  My boyfriend, who doesn't like chicken with bones, told me that the chicken was "awesome."  He normally doesn't like chicken skin either, and he proclaimed that to be delicious as well (because it was crispy and salty!).  I even got him to try a bite of chicken heart, which he also said wasn't bad.  "It just tastes like dark meat," he said.

Pantry Chocolate Cake (A.K.A. Wacky Cake)

Here's something for you while you're waiting for the results of the Whole Chicken Challenge!  I was watching a cooking show recently, and the host made a chocolate cake that only contains pantry ingredients--no butter, milk, or eggs.  She called it Busy-Day Chocolate Cake, but some people might recognize this recipe as Wacky Cake.  No one is sure when or where Wacky Cake originated, but it seems an awful lot like a depression-era or WWII-ration cake.  Another bonus: you can make it in the baking pan, saving you the work of doing a bunch of dishes!  Another bonus: it happens to be vegan, if you or someone you love are into that sort of thing.

Considering my patisserie-education background, I was slightly skeptical.  Dan was quite skeptical.  I figured "Okay...even if I hate it I only spent about $0.75 cents on the whole thing.  What have I got to lose?"  I made it last night and it's actually really good. It came out kind of crunchy on the top and edges and cakey everywhere else.  We ate it plain, but you could certainly top it with anything you like (powdered sugar, Swiss meringue, whipped cream, broiled marshmallows, canned frosting, jam, ganache.....).  You could probably even add chocolate chips or chopped nuts to the batter as well.  I wouldn't add more than about 1/2 cup of either though; it's kind of a small cake.

So without further ado, here is the recipe:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1 cup sugar
3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (I'll admit that my tablespoons were slightly heaped)
1 tsp. baking soda
scant 1/2 tsp. table salt
6 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp white vinegar (I substituted cider vinegar, and it still turned out yummy)
1 cup cold water

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F).  Measure all the dry ingredients into an 8" or 9" square baking pan.  Whisk them together to distribute the ingredients and break up any big lumps.  Note: My cocoa powder was really lumpy, so I sifted the ingredients into a large bowl and then added it to the baking pan.  Then I just wiped the bowl with a dry paper towel and put the bowl away.

2.  Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the oil, vanilla, vinegar and water.  Gently whisk to combine.  I would highly recommend getting into the edges and corners with a spoon to make sure all the dry ingredients are mixed in.  Bake until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean, about 35-40 minutes.  Let cool completely in the pan, set on a wire rack (you won't be able to turn it out of the pan if you follow these directions).  Top with deliciousness and serve. 

You won't be disappointed!

Whole Chicken Challenge

Man, it's been awhile!

Since I last posted a recipe, groceries have gotten quite a bit more expensive.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who's noticed.  Dan and I are trying to save money so we can move, so I'm trying to be as frugal as possible with the grocery bill.  I just got paid yesterday, so that means it's time for my bi-weekly trip to the store.  I thought it would be an interesting experiment to see how far I could stretch a roasted chicken.  Whole chickens are relatively inexpensive, easy to roast, and can go a long way with a few simple techniques.  This week might be a little more labor intensive than others, but I'm willing to give it a shot.  Like I've said before, if you want to save money, you gotta do some things yourself!

Stay tuned to see what I'm making and how much it cost!