Quick Brined Chicken

Roast (or turbo) chicken was never a favorite.  Mainly because they were mostly dry, tough and flavorless.  But once I learned the secret, it has become an easy meal!

The secret is brining!  And I followed Ruhlman's instructions.  I mainly do the quick brine method and I end up with moist, flavorful chicken!

Well, ok the process is not that fast (I did say easy, not fast) but the procedure is mainly waiting time... and the pay-off is really great!

Tasty Turbo Roast Chicken

A friend shared this really tasty chicken recipe...  The beauty of her recipe is its sheer simplicity.  It requires almost no work...

First buy a whole chicken and have it cleaned (so you don't have to do it by yourself!).  Then open a can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup.  Pour or spoon the contents of the condensed soup inside the inner cavity of the chicken and throw in 2 to 3 pieces of bacon, and some crushed garlic as well.  Place it in a turbo broiler and let it cook for 40 to 50 minutes, turning once or twice midway, depending on the size of the chicken.  (If roasting in an oven, make sure to place a pan below the chicken to save the drippings and "gravy".)  That's it!

In my particular case, however, I made a slight boo-boo.  I was careless and ended up with 2 whole but butterflied spring chickens!  In short, my chickens had no cavity to stuff the soup, bacon and garlic in.  So I improvised.  I spread the condensed soup (and bacon) in the bottom of a large Pyrex dish and laid the butterflied chickens, skin side up, on the soup and bacon, and (inconveniently) forgetting the put in the garlic with the bacon!

A-te J then requested that I place cracked black pepper on top (she likes a bit of kick in her food) so I did, finally remembering the garlic and putting it on top too.  I baked mine in the oven and it took about 60 minutes.

Long story short, it was absolutely yummy!!!

Thank you, friend M.!

Chicken Thighs with 40 Cloves of Garlic

I'd been eying this recipe for the longest time.  I've read many variations of it... from the so-called Engagement Chicken in the cookbook "100 Recipes a Woman Should Know", to Julia Child's, to a million others on the internet.  But, the price of garlic dissuaded me again and again.  Especially when its price tripled a couple of months ago!

But for now the price of garlic has returned to normal, more or less.  And, for once, the pantry had a lot of garlic, more than usual.  And I was actually fearful that it would start sprouting!

Then, at the last minute, BFF was coming over for a visit, so it was the perfect time for this recipe.  She actually requested lemongrass roast chicken but...  I wanted to (finally) make this chicken with 40 cloves (that's about 4 heads) of garlic! 

Anyway, in the end I decided to adapt Alton Brown's recipe, since it looked simple and fast!  But I "personalized" it.  Here is what I did -

1 to 1.2 kilos chicken thighs (about 7 to 8 pieces)
40 cloves of garlic, lightly smashed and peeled
2/3 cup canola and grapeseed oil mix
6 sprigs of fresh rosemary (leaves off the stem and coarsely chopped)
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 tablespoon coarsely ground black pepper
juice from 1/2 sweet orange, 1 small lemon and 1 lime (or big calamansi)

Clean the chicken thighs (remove fats and excess skin, etc.).  Rinse, drain and pat dry.  Set aside for a while.

Combine oil and garlic; gently heat until garlic smells fragrant.  This will take just a couple of minutes.  Let the oil cool to almost room temperature.  Meanwhile, mix together rosemary, salt and pepper.

Arrange chicken pieces in a baking tray (I used a disposable aluminum one).  Pour garlic oil all over and (use your fingers) to coat the chicken with the oil.  Rub the chicken with the rosemary-salt-pepper mix (get some in between the skin and meat too!)  Arrange chicken skin side up and drizzle the citrus juices all over.

Bake at 375F for about 45 to 55 minutes or until skin is browned and crisped.