I used to buy a lot of store bought stock. Literally every couple of weeks I was spending approximately twenty dollars at the grocery store for overly salty not great chicken and beef stock. Then a couple of years ago I decided that there had to be a better way. I opened up my mom's old loved and worn cook book and scoured the pages for a chicken stock recipe. After some searching I came across a great recipe that my mom had hand written in the margins. I bought all the ingredients, roasted the chicken and made the stock. It turned out great and I have never gone back to store-bought again. During my first stock experiment I subsequently discovered that homemade roasted chicken is tasty and very easy to make. So once every couple of weeks I roast a chicken and make chicken stock. It's a great way to save money and the leftovers are great for a variety of recipes. The May issue of Bon Appetit magazine had a recipe for Roast Chicken with Rosemary, Lemon, and Honey, which promised great flavor from the fresh rosemary sprigs.
This recipe has 9 ingredients. It takes approximately an hour and fifteen minutes of prep and cooking time and makes 6-8 servings. I did make a few modifications to this recipe. Shallots weren't available at my regular grocery store and rather than go to another store and spend over ten dollars on just shallots, I chose to use an onion and ramps instead. Additionally, the recipe states to cook the chicken for 55 minutes. I found that this length of cooking time was not adequate to cook the 4.5 pound birds that I bought. The skin on the bird also never fulled crisped up the way that it normally does when I roast chicken. I think that the olive oil, while it kept the bird moist made the skin not as crispy as I like. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.
The rosemary springs in this recipe made the chicken breast taste delicious and fragrant. I was skeptical when the chicken came out of the oven since the skin wasn't as crisp as my normal roasted chicken. However, once we ate the meat my husband and I were both impressed by how much flavor the fresh rosemary gave to the chicken meat. The leftovers were great for chicken salad and I have frozen the remainder since it will make a great chicken pot pie in a couple of weeks. Overall, while the skin isn't overly crispy the meat is moist and delicious.
For the recipe go to Roast Chicken with Rosemary, Lemon, and Honey.
I make my own stock using chicken frames from the butcher but this sounds pretty easy and the chicken sounds yummy.
ReplyDeleteIt really is easy and the leftovers are great for recipes!
DeleteI've never bought stock but I have been tempted. Your chicken looks great!
ReplyDeleteThanks :) Homemade stock is so much better!
DeleteLemon chicken looks lovely .
ReplyDeleteThanks, the flavor from the lemon and rosemary was delicious!
DeleteExcellent timing on this! I just bought a chicken on sale over the weekend. Can't wait to try this out! Thanks, Frugal!
ReplyDeleteI hope that you like the recipe, don't stress out if the skin doesn't brown completely, mine didn't, but the meat inside turned out perfect!
DeleteI love the combination of the ingredients - honey, lemon, rosemary. I added garlic, onion, pepper and salt. It was a hit! And I used organic chicken for a better taste, juicy and tender meat. Yummy to the tummy!
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