Tummyrumble

Roasting chicken for fun and profit

Roasting a whole chicken is a great way to make sure you use as much as possible of this bird that gave its life for your meal, while also saving money. Two excellent benefits now that mountains of food waste keep growing, alongside rising food prices... And hey, if you get your chicken from a reputable source, you know that it's free from horse DNA! Bonus.

As Oliver Thring points out in his Guardian column, living in the city makes it hard to take on a whole lamb or a pig (although me and Rob gave it a good go). Accommodating a chicken is a whole lot easier.

With a decent size bird (say a plump two kilos) you easily get two big meals for two people (more if you bulk up on veg and aren't as greedy as we are...), and can use the remaining carcass to make a nourishing stock for a soup.

My favourite way of roasting a bird requires spatchcocking it (apparently also a term in the pole dancing world, as I found out when looking for the etymology of this lovely word). This involves removing the backbone and the sternum, so it can be flattened out. It ends up looking a bit like a gory butterfly.

Not only does this cut down on the cooking time (since the chicken now is flat and exposed to the heat on both sides, rather than being a cylinder), I also imagine it makes for more, and more evenly crispy, skin (best part of a roast chicken, obviously) since the distance from the top of the bird to the grill element in the oven is the same for almost all parts of the chicken. Besides, it looks cool.

This video shows how it's done. The secret to making the bird stay flat, and not need skewers or anything to keep it in that position, is to remove the backbone and the sternum: 

Once that's done, the rest is simple.

Tip: When removing the sternum, you want to use a really sharp knife. Cut using the point all along the cartilage of the sternum, and stay really close to it. First time I did this I made a bit of a mess of it, and after a while realised that I needed to cut more and deeper than I thought.

Save the backbone and sternum, they go in the stockpot later.

Ingredients

1 whole chicken, spatchcocked
1 bunch of thyme
1 lemon
olive oil
butter
salt and pepper 

Method

Set oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Line a large oven pan with foil (I hate trying to get carbonised residue off of my pans...). Place a layer of thyme twigs, to rest the chicken on.

Slice up the lemon in 4 thick slices, place on the thyme in such a way that one slice ends up under each quarter of the chicken halves.
Rest the spatchcocked chicken on top.

Using your hand like it was a blade, stick your fingers under the skin at the neck end, and pull the skin away from the breast. It should come off easily. Push all the way down towards the legs.

Slide a few thumb sized knobs of butter under the skin, along with a few twigs of the thyme.

Then rub the top of the bird with a tablespoon of olive oil, salt and pepper it, and place a final few thyme twigs in strategic positions.

Whack in the oven, leave for just over an hour, an hour and 20 minutes (note: this was a big bird, well over 2 kilos), until done (use a thermometer, or do the old "when juices run clear" thing). 

The way I then would go about it is to carve off the leg quarter and the wing on each side, and have that for our dinner straight away. Legs and wings are the tastiest parts, so they go first. This particular night we served it with our carrot, cauliflower and cottage cheese low carb rösti. Recipe to follow, they are delicious.

Leaving the breast to cool a bit (don't burn your fingers), I then rip off all the meat and place in a container (make sure it is cool before putting in the fridge). That can then be chopped up and added to a healthy kick-ass paleo style salad, or why not a hearty butternut squash soup?

Place the remaining parts of the carcass and any scrappy bits with the backbone and the sternum (you did save them right?), and use to make chicken stock.

There. All of the bird used productively, while stretching a £10 pound purchase to several meals.

Low-carb experiments: no bake nut slice

Cake. I miss cake. And I am really sorry, but those gluten free recipes to produce what usually becomes a really dense sponge thing just don't float my sweet tooth boat. They invariably disappoint me.

Here is a recipe (via Captain CaveDan, who in turn got it from Whole New Mom who calls this homemade protein bars...)  for what I have found to be a great cake substitute. It satisfies on every level. Rich nutty flavour, lovely texture (hey, if it's going to be dense, go for proper dense with a crunch to boot), bit of sweetness from the honey, and a lovely layer of chocolate on top.

This is a great paleo inspired dessert or treat at "fika" time, on the sweeter side of low-carb, served for example with a vanilla cream and fresh berries. It's also absolutely packed with energy, so on its own it actually does make a pretty good energy bar (I have even had some of this for breakfast this week)...

When I make this next time, because I definitely will, I'll take a trick out of my mum's playbook and mix the melting chocolate with coconut butter before I spread it on top of the cake. In this way the chocolate will stay slightly soft making it easier to cut and serve. Without it the chocolate goes hard and brittle, going all over the plate as you try to cut it.

Another interesting idea would be to mix the chocolate with some peppermint oil, or perhaps stir some chopped dried fruit into the mix... Sprinkling some of the dessicated coconut on top before the topping sets would be a nice touch I think.

Ingredients

400ml of your fav nuts and seeds mix
100ml flaxseed meal
100ml shredded (dessicated) coconut
100ml nut or almond butter
100ml coconut butter
2 tbsp honey
2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp salt

For the topping:

150ml melted chocolate
50ml coconut oil (optional, helps keep topping soft) 

Method

Using a food processor or stick blender (I have one of those incredibly versatile hand blender machines with a container attachment that chops almost anything) mix the nuts and seeds, flaxseed, shredded coconut, nut butter and salt to a coarse meal.

If your coconut butter is solid, melt it in a small pot over a low heat, then add to the nut meal mix in the blender along with the honey and vanilla essence. Mix it all together to a thick paste.

Press the mixture into a square (25-30cm across) or circular low pan. Get it nice and flat, you are going to pour liquid chocolate over this in a minute and you want a nice smooth surface. Easiest way to achieve this is to take a tablespoon and pressing gently with the rounded part, make circular motions from the center outwards towards the edge.

To melt the chocolate, boil a small amount of water in a low pan and place a bowl on top. Place the chocolate in the bowl and stir until it melts. It should look something like this. Don't let the bowl touch the water, and make sure to not get any water in the bowl.

This is where you can try to add some coconut oil to the chocolate and stir it together to stop the chocolate from going all brittle when it cools off.

Pour the chocolate over the mixture in the pan, again using a tablespoon and pressing down very gently while making circular motions out towards the edges, make sure it covers the entire surface.

Place in fridge to chill and set for a few hours.

Serve with whipped cream or, if you really want to treat yourself, with this sinfully good "Madagascan Vanilla Cream" that they sell at Sainsbury's... 

You are unlikely to finish the cake in one sitting unless there are several guests, it is absolutely packed with energy. Store in the fridge between "fika".

Low-carb experiments: almond crackers

Can you hear that? No? Me neither. There isn't a lot of crunch in the low carb world. When you rule out grains, and especially wheat, the world of baking is kind of a no go.

Usually what we do at home to add that crunch back is cheat. Swedish crisp bread, especially the Finn Crisp Original, feels like an acceptable vehicle for cheese, hoummus and dips.

Finally I have found an alternative: almond crackers, which I guess could be called "paleo crisps"!

Quick and easy to make (unlike aubergine crisps, although those are delicious), really crunchy, nice savoury flavour and packed with goodness. All this while more than enough structural strength to withstand a swift scooping of even the thickest, chunkiest guacamole.

These will become a staple.

Ingredients for a smallish batch

200ml (1 cup) almond flour
1 tbsp almond butter
2 egg whites
salt

Instead of buying almond flour and butter you can do as the original recipe and blitz 200ml of almonds in your stick blender. The main reason I did it the way I did was that we already had almond flour at home, but on its own it seemed a bit dry so I added in a bit of butter as well...

Next time I will try experimenting a bit by adding in some crushed coriander seeds, or chilli powder, for added flavouring. 

Method

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. I simply folded it all together with a spatula, no need to bring out the power tools.

Place some baking paper on a baking tray and spread the mix thinly. Try to form a square shape for later cutting / breaking it up in rectangular crackers.

Bake for about 25 minutes, until you can see the edges and tops darken and the mix has crisped up.

Take out the tray and set aside to cool and crisp up further. 

Using your hands, or a pizza cutter, break up in pieces. Dip in hoummus, salsa, guacamole... Or why not try the babba ganoush found with the original recipe? Delicious.

Low-carb experiments: fake couscous

Cauliflower is so versatile, and the low-carb cooks best friend. Usually we use it to make a cauliflower mash (the cheese makes it really creamy), to go as a side for steaks and lamb, but with a few different additions it can be more like couscous, or like rice.

This recipe for cauliflower "couscous" salad is from the Rocket & Squash blog, but for sakes of speed (and using all of the cauliflower) rather than going with raw cauliflower I violated the recipe and steamed and crushed it instead.

The dressing is delicious, slightly sweet, and went so well with our lamb. Would probably make a perfect match with duck breast.

Next time I'll also add some toasted pine nuts for crunch and energy, and pomegranate seeds which I think will go superbly with the tangerine dressing!

Ingredients (serves 4)

1 large cauliflower
2 red chillis, finely chopped
1/2 cucumber, deseeded and diced
1 large handful parsley, finely chopped

Dressing:

2 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp water
Juice from 1 tangerine (or 1/2 orange...)
Juice from 1/2-1 lemon
Salt and pepper 

Method

 Cut up the cauliflower in florets, halved if they are large, and steam for 10 minutes. When done, remove the cauliflower from the steamer and leave it to cool and dry for a bit.

While the cauliflower is cooling, chop the chilli and parsley, deseed the cucumber and cut it first in strips lengthwise and then small cubes. Place it all in a bowl.

Put the steamed cauliflower in a pot and crush with for example a potato masher. When completely crushed, mix with the other salad ingredients in the bowl.

For the dressing, just whisk all the ingredients together in a small bowl and season with salt and pepper to taste. If you want the dressing more tangy, add some more lemon juice.

Pour the dressing over the salad, mix well. The original recipe calls for then leaving the salad to soak in the dressing for 30 minutes. I'm not sure why, but then taste it and if needed add some more seasoning.

Serve with for example lamb loins, as below, or with fried duck breast. Delicious. The chilli is subtle, but adds a nice kick to the salad.

Low-carb experiments: LCHF bread, and making eggplant mozzarella sandwiches

Not satisfied with finding a method to make low-carb crisp that works, I today also made my first attempt at baking a low carb high fat bread. This is a recipe I found at a blog called Free The Animal, where after several attempts a bread replacement has been perfected.

Not sure I agree, after my first attempt, but it certainly is a very good start!

What I am after isn't something that necessarily tastes and feels like bread (I think that's impossible), but something that has exactly the opposite texture of crisps: spongy, porous and supple, and can act like a healthy vehicle for mopping up sauce! And I do miss a fluffy carrier of sandwich fillings. Lettuce leaves just don't cut it...

Look at this, it certainly looks the part:

I definitely need to practice though, as the bread I made came out a bit underbaked, and icnredibly oily.

Not surprising, given that there's 250ml of coconut butter in there, but the picture at Free the Animal looks so much better than my result!

Where his bread has risen and seems to stay that way, mine collapsed completely after cooling. Rather than a nice convex bread shape, it went limply concave which didn't look too appetizing...

Next time I will add some more lemon juice, reduce the amount of coconut butter (perhaps with as much as half just to see what happens), add another egg and up the nut content. Adding some coconut or almond flour like in this low carb waffles recipe, or some protein flour could be another way to make it more bready.

Flavour wise it is very neutral, perhaps with a hint of eggy savouriness. Replacement for bread it aint, but it is certainly porous enough to soak up sauce!

And here's the recipe for eggplant mozzarella LCHF sandwiches:

Ingredients

Tasty bread, LCHF bread if you don't want the carbs
Pesto
Mozzarella
Tomatoes
Cooked or smoked ham
Eggplant 
Salt and pepper 

Method

Start with slicing eggplant, one large slice for each sandwich. Brush lightly with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake in your oven at 220C grill, 4-5 minutes on each side or until they start going light brown.

Meanwhile, slice the tomatoes and mozzarella.

When the eggplant is done, assemble the sandwiches placing first a layer of ham on the bread, then the eggplant, add some mozzarella, drizzle with a teaspoon of pesto, and finish with the sliced tomatoes.

This went incredibly well on top of the LCHF bread, resulting in a really rich, tasty, satisfying sandwich. Very much a calorie bomb though, and packed with healthy fats, so keep in mind not to eat as much of this as you would if it were actual bread. Fat has twice the calorie content of carbohydrate, remember?