The whole bird

Sunday was a “How old am I?” day. It started out with taking my parents out to lunch in honor of the Marine Corp. birthday on Thursday and Veteran’s Day on Friday. My dad served as a Marine, so it just felt right to honor him. Then Kevin and I hit up Home Depot to take advantage of early Black Friday sales. Our washing machine has been acting up a little, so we bought a new washer and dryer. Then I came home and started dinner: a whole roasted chicken, just like in the 1950s TV shows.

How old am I?

I am really proud of my chicken success. This was my first attempt at cooking a whole bird. At first I was very nervous, but it’s actually pretty simple. We don’t own a roasting pan, so I used a Dutch oven on the stovetop instead.

Parko gets excited whenever there’s chicken in the kitchen.

Stovetop roasted chicken

Ingredients:

• 1 small chicken, about 5 lbs
• 3 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 1 medium onion, diced into large chunks
• 2 large carrots, diced, or handful of baby carrots, cut in half
• Salt
• Pepper
• Onion Powder
• Garlic Powder

Directions:

Preheat Dutch oven over medium heat. Remove innards from chicken cavity and season with salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder. Place breast down in Dutch oven and add 1 cup chicken broth. Cover with lid and let cook over medium heat for 1 hour.

After 1 hour, add onion, carrots and 1 cup of chicken broth to Dutch oven. Depending on size of pot, add up to 1 more cup so liquid level covers most of vegetables and is about two inches high. Place cover back on and cook over medium-low heat for another hour.

Chicken is done when it reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees. Serve with broth and vegetables.

I actually never got a photo of the whole chicken. Upon trying to remove it from our Dutch oven, the chicken just fell apart. No knives are needed. The chicken was extremely juicy and moist and fell off the bone. For a crispier skin, cook skin side down in olive oil before adding chicken broth.

The onions practically melted into the broth, and the carrots got nice and sweet. I really loved this meal and look forward to making it again if winter ever comes our way.

Have you ever cooked a whole bird before?

Now that the holiday sales are starting up, I’m looking into buying a new laptop. Just out of curiosity, if you have a laptop, what type of laptop do you own? Do you like it? It’s a very overwhelming decision!