A shout out to roasted chicken

http://www.cookstr.com/recipes/zuni-roast-chicken-with-bread-salad

I roasted a chicken v simply w/ spicy paprika & garlic, served w/ arepas stuffed with basil & cheese (topped w/ tomatoes) and a raw kale salad with pinenuts and Parmesan (thx for the idea laurel!)

+ tempranillo

Behold my red & green holiday dinnie

i always do a paste of herbs + oo or butter btw the flesh and the skin, roast with lemon and herbs in the cavity. also a fan of starting the roasting process w/ bird upside down, then flipping so as not to overdo the skin.

i should try another kind... paprika & garlic sounds great.

what's the best way to strain stock made from carcass?

cheesecloth

has anyone used those separator things to remove fat?

Yeah, they work ok, but they're usually too small to hold all the stock at once. If you can make room in the fridge, just put it in there overnight and peel the solid fat off the next day.

With a steady hand and patience, you can skim a lot of the fat off with a large flattish serving spoon.

Yeah I usually do herb/butter/lemon too and today I just wanted to try sthg different. I put butter and salt between skin and meat too. Paprika roasted nicely with the skin.

Love roasted chicken. We definitely do the dismantling for leftovers/stock thing.

I stick to the absolute basics: butter, salt, pepper, lemons inside, roast on high heat to crisp the skin and then turn the heat down and cook until the thermometer says whatever it's supposed to. I used to brine, or flip halfway through, or truss, but one day I was feeling lazy and skipped all the fancy stuff and it was still delicious.

At least once a week I roast a chicken or at least some legs + wings, and always have it with roasted potatoes, cooked in a separate cast-iron skillet and finished with smoked paprika, as well as braised kale with a bunch of garlic and sherry vinegar.

When I do a whole roast one I end up getting like 12 meals out of it - the initial one, something using whatever we don't eat the first night, and soup made with the carcass.

making stock this morning. it looks disgusting now but give it a few hours and *mwah*