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Roasted chicken

Updated recipe (2023-03-25)

I frequently make a roasted chicken now. A 5 pound chicken makes:

My 5 pound whole chicken:

Remove anything from the cavity. I just discard the various bits, though you could add them to the stock. Rinse and pat dry.

Remove the wings and drumettes. Trim off the wing tip and separate the flat from the drumette. Vacuum seal and freeze raw for Buffalo wings in the future.

Season with salt, pepper, granulated garlic and rubbed sage.

In a roasting pan with a rack, add the chicken and 16 oz. water to the bottom of the pan.

I drizzle the chicken with soy sauce after about 20 minutes, but this is optional.

Roast at 400°F until the deep in the thigh is 160°F.

Drain the chicken into the pan and set aside from at least 30 minutes before cutting.

Remove the rack from the pan. It should look something like this:

Transfer to a saucepan. Add 1 tsp. More Than Gourmet roasted chicken stock concentrate. It's optional, but gives the gravy more flavor.

Add 6 oz. water to a 16 oz. Pyrex measuring cup. Add 1/4 cup all-purpose flour and stir thoroughly. Add more water to make 12 oz. total and stir again.

Bring the stock to a boil, then add the water and flour slurry.

Bring back to a boil, stirring frequently.

Lower the heat and cook for 5 minutes.

Strain into a clean measuring cup. It should make 16 oz. to 20 oz. If it's less than 16 oz., add water to make 16 oz.

Once the chicken has cooled, cut the drumsticks, thighs, and breast meat from the carcass. Cut the carcass in half so it will sit flat in the Instant Pot when making stock.

Chicken deboned and sliced. I keep the skin on the breast meat slices.

Add the rest of the skin and bones to the Instant Pot.

Add to the Instant Pot:

Divide the sliced chicken:

Vacuum sealed and froze 3 servings, kept one for dinner.

Chicken soup

Cook the contents of the Instant Pot on the soup setting. After it's done, turn off the heat and let sit for 20 minutes, then depressurize.

Cool the inner pot in a sink of cold water.

Remove the large bits onto a sheet pan.

Strain the liquid into a 32 oz. Pyrex measuring cup. Put the cup in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or longer, then skim off excess fat.

Pick through the meat and separate.

Discard the remaining bones, skin, and vegetables.

Vacuum seal and freeze:

I like to use the chicken and stock to make chicken kimchi soup. With 12 oz. chicken stock, 1.7 oz. roasted chicken, kimchi, and spinach.

Original recipe (2011-03-28)

I roasted a whole chicken. Really, in the oven. No sous vide, smoker, infrared grill, or anything!

I made a 5 lb. antibiotic and hormone-free, vegetarian feed-only chicken.

Remove anything from the cavity. I just discard the various bits. Rinse and pat dry. I removed the tips of the wings to the first joint because there's basically no meat and they sometimes will burn. I could have trussed it, but I wasn't going to carve it at a table so I didn't mind that it was a little floppy.

Season with salt, pepper, granulated garlic and ground sage.

Roast in the oven at 400°F until the temperature deep in the thigh meat reaches 160°F. It took 45 minutes for my 5 lb. chicken. After 20 minutes, add 8 oz. of water to the pan.

I drizzled my chicken with soy sauce as well, which wasn't really intentional. I do it for pork roast, roast beef, etc. but only after I did it I thought, "Wait, I don't usually do that for chicken."

When done, remove the chicken from the pan, draining any juice in the cavity into the roasting pan. Set the chicken aside and let it rest for 15 to 30 minutes.

Add 12 oz. water to a bowl; I like to use a 16 oz. Pyrex measuring cup. Add 1/4 cup all-purpose flour and mix thoroughly.

Put the pan juices in the roasting pan on the stove top over high heat. Add the flour and water slurry. As soon as the gravy starts to bubble lower the heat to medium-low and cook for 3 to 5 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and soy sauce.

When the gravy is done, cut up the chicken.

I further broke down the chicken:

Most of it I vacuum sealed.

I then used the chicken carcass, wings and bones to make chicken stock and the base for chicken soup . There was quite a bit of meat and bones, so I added the full 64 oz. of water (along with a carrot, onions and two stalks of celery) and simmered for 3 hours.

That produced 48 oz. of nice chicken stock and 6 oz. of chicken bits. Instead of making plain broth, I used that chicken and 3 oz. of the leg and thigh to make three servings of chicken soup: 16 fl. oz. broth and 3 oz. chicken each. I vacuum sealed and froze them.

I started the chicken at 12:30 PM. Even though it was done way before dinner, it didn't matter anyway because I had a completely different dinner and Roasted Chicken is Wednesday night's dinner. It was nice to have everything completely cleaned up in one day, which is really only possible starting that early. The soup package still didn't go into the freezer until 7 PM!

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