Lazy cook made yummy chicken

[chicgeek]

I had a whole, cut up chicken defrosted and ready to cook. And an empty refrigerator, since it's been too icy to drive out to the grocery.
I laid it out in a big heavy roasting pan, and dotted it with butter.The veggie bin was sad.... I had about a stalk of celery and two small carrots , so I chopped them up fine. Added a very small chopped onion, and on a whim, I peeled and sliced an apple. I poured a can of chicken broth over everything.Sea salt, ground black pepper, a good dusting of thyme, and a wee bit of garlic.  The oven was set for 425, I lowered it to 350 when I slid the pan in. After an hour I pulled it out, flipped over the chicken, and then laid a piece of tinfoil loosely on top, and cooked for another 45 minutes.
Chicken was tender and tasty. I scooped out the veggies and pureed them, then put them and the broth in a pan and reduced it. At the end I thickened it a little more with mashed potato.
If I make this again-I think I must either brown the chicken in a skillet first, or just skin the chicken. And a whole can of broth was almost too much.
But the sauce was om nom nom! Even the kid who turns her nose up at gravy and sauces piled it on her chicken. And it didn't have an obvious apple flavor, but you could tell it added something nice to the mix.

[txanne]

That sounds really tasty! I'll need to remember the apple trick.

[MadGastronomer]

Don't flip the chicken or foil it, you don't need it for a bird that size (turkeys you have to do that for), and it'll let you get the nice crispy brown skin.

Also, you don't necessarily need to cook it so long. Rather than relying on time, get a probe thermometer that you can set to go off when it reaches 155. Insert the probe in the meat between the leg and the body, and make sure it doesn't hit bone.

[chicgeek]

Thank you, MadGastronomer.  I'll follow your advice for next time! It's fun to experiment a little-I don't have near the time to cook that I'd like to these days. Siigh....

[DavidG]

That sounds really tasty! I'll need to remember the apple trick.

We usually stuff the family turkey's body cavity with a couple of apples and oranges rather than a more traditional stuffing. I don't know if it actually does a lot for the flavour, but it certainly doesn't hurt.

[glinda_w]

We usually stuff the family turkey's body cavity with a couple of apples and oranges rather than a more traditional stuffing. I don't know if it actually does a lot for the flavour, but it certainly doesn't hurt.

When I'm roasting chicken and don't want to bother with stuffing (which seems to be most of the time), I put a slice or two of onion, a cut-into-small-enough-chunks stalk of celery, and a couple of apple quarters in the cavity, along with some sage. Flavors the chicken and the gravy made from the pan drippings.

Now I'm hungry... need to go out and get more cornmeal (xthreadx) and um. I think that's all I don't have on hand, to make tamale pie later today.

[Jezabella49]

That does sound yummy.

Apple goes well with many things.  The only thing I've cooked with apple that I did not like the results was fish.  It was a strongly fishy tasting fish, in spite of being guaranteed fresh, and I was trying to lighten the flavor.  Didn't work.  Drowning it in shrimp sauce made it edible.  Barely.

[trinker]

That does sound yummy.

Apple goes well with many things.  The only thing I've cooked with apple that I did not like the results was fish.  It was a strongly fishy tasting fish, in spite of being guaranteed fresh, and I was trying to lighten the flavor.  Didn't work.  Drowning it in shrimp sauce made it edible.  Barely.

I am told, although I do not know from experience, because I am a fan of very strong tasting fish, that soaking in milk will make a fish milder. Me, I want the dark fleshed fish. Fresh and inherently pungent, not old and reeking.