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cjsmith ([personal profile] cjsmith) wrote2005-12-04 10:57 am

Recipe Tryouts #2: Rosemary Chicken

Recipe from [livejournal.com profile] erisian_fields. Mmmm, rosemary!

Lesson Number One: It is much easier to separate a chicken breast from the little pantiliner it sits on when it's not frozen. Often I repack such things, but this time I had the space and wouldn't have them in there long. Oops.

I put a big pile of chicken breasts in the crock pot. Then it said to sprinkle with salt, pepper, and rosemary. Oh, maybe I should have sprinkled each layer? But the meat had started to fuse. It had been in the freezer only overnight in a big stack and thus some wasn't fully frozen. I pried the layers apart to do the sprinkling. The rosemary smelled so good!

Liquids in -- and all the stuff I'd sprinkled on the topmost piece washed off. Duh! As the hours went on I stirred the top ones under.

Many hours later I pulled the meat out and tried for sauce. I strained some of the fat off, the stuff that wasn't liquid at crock temperatures. There was an awful lot of that floating around and I probably halved it. I poured all the rest (rosemary and all) into a pot on the stove. I stirred a couple tablespoons of cornstarch into cool water until it was smooth, then poured that in the pot too. I boiled it, and boiled it, and boiled it, and boiled it... and then gave up 'cause guests were coming! I poured the still-very-thin "sauce" onto my single-portion bits of meat and popped them all in the freezer for the future.

This morning I took one portion out, opened the lid a crack for heating, and mmmmmmmmm did it smell good. Even frozen! I adore rosemary, have I mentioned? I noticed the sauce did have little spots that looked like they had tried to become thick. I made some rice with that broth/sauce.

The kitties followed my every move. BOY were they interested.

It was good! Rice with the broth was a good idea. Next time, a tinch less lemon (I kinda went on the high side for that) and a bit more rosemary and pepper. The chicken breast was falling apart at a touch, and was a tad dry, so maybe also cook it less long?? And if I want a sauce, maybe more cornstarch.

[identity profile] cjsmith.livejournal.com 2005-12-04 11:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh no! Someone in your family added a big batch of cornstarch and turned a gravy into a rock? Sounds like something I'd do. Patience is... um... something I'm working on, yeah, that's it.

I was trying to be real lazy, thus the boneless skinless. Maybe if I seared it first or something... oh, who am I kidding? Then it would be "a complicated recipe" and I probably wouldn't start it.

Ah. I don't mind chewing on it. Mmmmm rosemary. :-) But I'll keep in mind that other people may not like it that way!

[identity profile] aelfie.livejournal.com 2005-12-07 09:51 pm (UTC)(link)
The first thanksgiving after we got married we spent at a friends house. Who regaled us with the tale of a thanksgiving years past, when, after someone did in fact make gravy jello. Where upon the resident 8 y.o. piped up "oh no! You've ruined Thanksgiving!"

Fast forward 2 hours, Ron (whom you've met) was making the gravy, added too much cornstarch and made gravy jello. He tells us what he did and the entire room calls out "oh no! You've ruined Thanksgiving!"

And we've never let him live it down.

[identity profile] cjsmith.livejournal.com 2005-12-07 10:56 pm (UTC)(link)
*snicker* *giggle*

As with all comedic effect, timing and delivery are everything. Ron NAILED it.

[identity profile] aelfie.livejournal.com 2005-12-07 11:31 pm (UTC)(link)
I could say something really, really rude. But I'm not that mean...


Yes I am!

Its one of the few things he nailed!

[identity profile] cjsmith.livejournal.com 2005-12-08 12:43 am (UTC)(link)
*groan*

If Jello is the only thing you can nail, you may as well. *innocent look*

[identity profile] aelfie.livejournal.com 2005-12-08 05:21 am (UTC)(link)
Man, I am so glad he doesn't read our blogs. =)

[identity profile] cjsmith.livejournal.com 2005-12-08 05:07 pm (UTC)(link)
In two years these comments may come back to bite us on the butt. O'course, there's some security through obscurity: there's SO MUCH CRAP in this journal that no one who found it now would go back to wade through it all!

[identity profile] psi-star-psi.livejournal.com 2005-12-09 07:56 am (UTC)(link)
Mmmmm...butt biting...drool...

Sorry. Perhaps I'm oversharing.

On LJ. Bwah-hah-hah-hah-hah!