How to Make the Most of a Roast Chicken

A roast chicken can be one of the most heartwarming meals, especially this time of the year when PNW days tend to be rather dreary. And though I love the taste of crispy seasoned skin and the mouth-watering aroma of roast chicken, what I love about this meal most is how I can stretch the leftovers to last me the rest of the week.

Now when I say leftovers, let me be very clear -- I don't mean reheating the same meal over and over for 5 nights in a row, but using the remains to create something entirely tasty and new. I use the leftover vegetables in this recipe to create a breakfast hash with bacon and greens or stir it into a quiche.

I usually serve the legs and wings of the chicken with the roast vegetables and a bunch of arugula on top the night I cook it. Then I carve the breast into small chunks and throw the bones and remains into our pressure cooker to make bone broth. With the chicken chunks and bone broth I can make a whole host of different meals in the following week, here's a loose timeline:

Monday: - Roast Chicken and Vegetables. - Make bone broth and cut up chicken breast.

Tuesday:

- Use the first half of the chicken breast to make Green Chile Chicken Tacos.

Wednesday:

- Use the remaining chicken breast to make Roast Chicken Pizza.

Thursday:

- Use one pint of the bone broth to make Asparagus and Mushroom Risotto.

Friday:

- Use another pint to two pints of bone broth to make Vegetable Noodle Miso Soup.

For Breakfast:

- Bacon, Sweet Potato and Greens Hash - sub the roasted veg for sweet potatoes.

- Vegetable Quiche

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Roast Chicken:

This recipe is modified from this fun little book I love called How to Be Parisian, Wherever You Are. In this book they have a recipe for a Roast Chicken that the author swears by as her go-to entree when she's hosting a dinner party. I've simplified the recipe quite a bit but the essence of this lemony, flavorful chicken can still be found in the recipe below.

1 organic, pasture-raised chicken

1 lemon

2 Tbl olive oil

2 tsp cinnamon (sounds strange, but makes a lovely crispy skin)

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp salt

1 sprig of thyme

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Coat a large roasting pan with 1 Tbl of olive oil.

2. Take the innards out of the chicken and cut extra fat/clean up. Place the chicken in the roasting pan and rub the remaining olive oil on it.

3. Wash the lemon and cut in half. Squeeze the juice of one half of the lemon onto the chicken. Zest the lemon and sprinkle the zest on the chicken. Stick the lemon halves and a sprig of thyme inside the chicken.

4. Sprinkle the cumin, cinnamon and salt on top of the chicken. Stick in the oven for 15-20 minutes.

While the chicken cooks...

Roasted Vegetables:

There is a wide variety of vegetables you can use for this recipe, and I encourage you to use whatever's in season or that you can find at your local farmers market. Roasting vegetables is a great opportunity to load up on a variety of vitamins, represented in different colors. Potatoes have a whole host of heirloom varieties, with different flavors -- my favorite vendor sells on Saturdays at the University District Farmers Market in Seattle. During the winter, you'll probably be sticking with mostly root vegetables but I try and make sure I have a mixture, here's some ideas:

Potatoes

Sweet Potatoes

Parsnips

Carrots

Turnips - Roasted turnips sound weird but they're amazing!

Red Onion

Leek

Beets

I dice a variety of these vegetables, one large bowls worth, and coat in olive oil and season (I switch this up, sometimes I use a mixture of Italian seasoning and garlic salt, sometimes just salt and pepper, even Johnny's Seasoning works great!)

Roasted Vegetables

2 Tbl olive oil

Seasoning

1. Dice the vegetables, coat in olive oil and season.

2. When the chicken has finished it's 15-20 minutes, pull it out of the oven, and add the vegetables around it. Lower the temperature to 350 degrees an put the chicken and vegetables back in the oven The chicken needs to cook for about 15-20 minutes per pound -- so if it's a five pound bird, keep it in the over for another hour- hour and twenty.

When you're done eating...

- Carve the rest of the chicken breast into chunks and put in the fridge to use later.

- Pull out your pressure cooker and get ready to make some bone broth!

Bone Broth:

Chicken Leftovers

1 Sweet Walla Walla Onion

1 carrot

2 celery stalks

1 garlic cluster

1. Place the chicken remains (bones and all, including the innards you saved from earlier) in the pressure cooker. * I throw the lemons and thyme in with the chicken as well, but I love lemon.

2. Cut the onion, carrot, and celery into large chunks - no need to peel anything, just chunk it. I smash the garlic cloves a bit before throwing them in, but same thing no need to peel them.

3. Fill the pressure cooker bowl with water up to the 4L mark.

4. Lock the top of the pressure cooker and hit the manual button, enter the highest amount of time (on mine it's 240 minutes) at high pressure. When you've reached 240 just leave it and it will begin on its own.

I usually do this later in the evening after dinner and let it cook all night. I suggest cooking it for at least another hour or two in the morning to really break everything down.

5. Release the pressure and take a spoon to the broth inside, try and break up everything as much as possible. Then pour the mixture through a fine strainer and pour into large, pint sized jars to put in the refrigerator for later. I usually get about 4 pints and put 1 or two in the freezer (if you put in the freezer, make sure to leave space for frozen liquid to expand!)

Note* You can also drink this bone broth on its own, try heating it on the stove with some ginger and lemon slices and fresh thyme, to sip on. Don't forget to add some salt!