Roasted Chicken Aftermath

Yesterday I roasted two whole roasting chickens in the oven. I always roast my chickens two at a time because any extras get used up in delicious ways. Yesterday's chickens were nothing fancy. I rubbed them with a paste of butter, salt, pepper, a pinch of cayenne flakes, some lemon juice, thyme, and a little bit of nutmeg. The end result was a moist chicken with a delicious jus that collected at the bottom of the roasting pan. I served the thighs with white rice and some vegetables and nibbled a little extra here and there (like the oysters, which are my favourite part).

Today I'm going to use some of the breast meat to make a salad using a few of the peppers and tomatoes I've grown in our community plot along with some of the rosemary I grew. It'll be simple just the chicken and bits from the garden along with cucumber, feta, and lots of thinly sliced red onions. I might also make some croutons, but I'll focus my attention mostly on how to make this simple salad as delicious tasting as possible as that means making an excellent dressing.

One thing I'm really into at the moment for summer is fresh herb dressings. So instead of using powdered onion, garlic, etc. I use all fresh onions and garlic to start and then make something with what I happen to have that's fresh and around. For tonight I have fresh rosemary, parsley, basil, and sage. I've decided to stick with parsley, sage, and rosemary.

Fresh Herb Dressing

handful of fresh roughly chopped parsley

6 leaves of fresh sage finely chopped

10 "leaves" of fresh rosemary

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 T salt

1 T dried oregano (is it impossible to find fresh oregano outside of Italy??)

liberal amount of freshly ground black pepper

1 T sugar

1/8 cup balsamic vinegar

3 T Dijon mustard

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 cloves of garlic finely minced

1/2 red onion finely minced

1/4 cup of finely chopped feta cheese (optional)

Add the salt and balsamic vinegar and let dissolve. Next add the Dijon mustard and mix to dissolve. Add the fresh spices, oregano, sugar, garlic, onion, and feta cheese if using. Slowly dribble in olive oil while mixing until the mixture is blended and add the lemon juice.

Let sit at least 30 minutes, but overnight is better.

Whatever is leftover is going to become homemade chicken soup.

I make my own chicken broth using the carcass (bones), leftover jus, and inedible bits of chicken. Since there's already thyme in the juice, I'll only need to add bay leaves, fresh garlic, fresh sage leaves, chopped fennel, onion, and a little bit of carrot to create my broth or bouillon. It will take several hours as I'll need to get rid of the scum that forms as I simmer my ingredients.

I always make my chicken stock the day before so I can leave it to come to room temperature overnight. This allows the fat to congeal easily on the top and you can decide how much of the fat you want to keep. I always keep a little for homemade chicken soup as it adds to the flavour.

I have Day Two bouillon now. I let it sit overnight covered, stirred it this morning, added a little salt (notice I hadn't added any yet), brought the liquid level up the original amount when I added the carcasses, and it's now simmering again on the lowest possible heat.

I'll post more about my chicken soup including recipes and pictures later.