Recipes involved: Lemon Rosemary Roast Chicken, Mushroom Saffron Risotto. Recipes by Ted Allen (my commentary in parentheses).
Lemon Rosemary Roast Chicken
serves 4
4.5 lb roasting chicken (make sure you get a roaster and not a fryer. The whole chicken!)
1 lemon quartered and zested (zesting shall be explained)
1.5 Tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary, plus several sprigs for stuffing.
1 Teaspoon kosher salt
.5 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced (I use the jarred stuff for this, I find the difference negligible)
.25 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 large onions (about 1 lb) quartered (I use vidalias, they're like candy!)
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Rinse the chicken inside and out, then pat dry with paper towels.
In a small bowl, combine the lemon zest, chopped rosemary, salt, pepper, and garlic. Dump half this mixture into the cavity of the chicken, along with the flesh of the lemons and the sprigs of rosemary.
Add the olive oil to the bowl of seasoning, and whisk with a fork, forming a paste. Massage this mixture all over the outside of the chicken.
Place the onions in the bottom of a roasting pan. Set the chicken breasts on the onions, and put in the oven. Bake for 1 hour, basting occasionally with the juices from the bottom of the pan onto the top of the bird (it's gonna be a little while into the process that juices will appear, but appear they will) (oh yeah, you're gonna need a baster. They're cheap).
Raise the temperature to 400 F and roast until the skin browns a bit, about 15 minutes. Carefully turn the chicken, using tongs or long handled forks (you don't have either of these? buy both.), so the breast faces down.
(psst...this is the PERFECT time to start the risotto!!!)
Continue to roast for 30 to 40 minutes, until the skin has browned and crisped. Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes or so before serving.
To carve, use your 8 inch butcher knife (go buy it now...I'll wait). You'll be able to cut it into quarters straight down the middle, both ways. You'll end up with 2 breast wing combos as well as 2 leg thigh combos. Serve with the onions. They are De. Li. Cious.
268 calories per serving.
Citrus Zest
The zest is the out layer of the citrus rind, the part with the texture and color. The inner layer, called the pith, is white and bitter; you don't want this. To get the zest, rub the fruit along the smallest holes of a box grater, or better yet, buy a
zester! Be careful to leave the pith on the fruit.
Mushroom Saffron Risotto
serves 2 as an entree, 4 as a side dish
6 cups (1.5 quarts) boxed organic broth
3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
.5 lb portobello mushrooms, stemmed, cleaned, and thinly sliced
.5 lb cremini or shitake mushrooms, stemmed, cleaned and thinly sliced
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1.5 cups Arborio rice
.5 cup of dry white wine (I typically use 2 buck chuck)
2 Tablespoons herbed butter (see previous post)
.25 cup chopped fresh chives
.5 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese (meaning that YOU grated, not that garbage in the green bottle)
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
.5 Teaspoon saffron threads
On a rear burner of your stove, in a small pot, heat the broth to just below the boiling point. turn the flame to very low and keep at the barest simmer, add saffron. On the burner in front of your broth, heat 2 Tablespoons of the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over a medium high flame. Add the sliced mushrooms and cook, stirring often, until they've wilted and released their juices, about 5 minutes. Empty the contents of the skillet - mushrooms and oil - into a small bowl.
In the same skillet, add the remaining tablespoon of oil and warm over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring often with a wooden sppon, until totally wilted but not browning, about 5 minutes. Raise the heat to medium high, add the rice, and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes; the rice will take on a little bit of color, but be careful not to let it stick to the bottom of the pan and burn.
Pour in the wine and stir until it is absorbed by the rice, about 1 to 2 minutes, stirring all the while. Once the wine is gone, repeat the process with the warm broth - add .5 cups at a time, stir, and wait for the liquid to be absorbed before you add the next .5 cup. Stir constantly. (Yeah, it's a little tedious, but SOOO worth it). Keep this going for a total of 15 to 20 minutes of broth additions, until the rice is cooked through but still a little firm (al dente) to the bite. You may not need all the broth, and the end result should be slightly soupy - just a little liquid among the grains of rice.
When the rice is done, return the sauteed mushrooms to the pan. Stir in the butter, chives, and parmesan, and add salt and pepper to taste. Cover the pan and let it sit for at least 2 minutes, and then serve immediately.
250 calories per serving as a side. 500 as a main.
Tools Used
sauce pan
roasting pan
nonstick skillet
bowl
8 inch butcher knife
baster
wooden spoon
tongs
rotary grater
Most of these items are available for sale from my friend Nicole's webstore,
The Pampered Chef. Those you cannot find there, can be found at Amazon.
All recipes presented in this post are either exact from Ted Allen, or
variations of his recipes. The original recipes for this post can be
found in
Queer Eye for the Straight Guy book, which can be found on Amazon or at your local bookstore.
