Recipe Tryouts #2: Rosemary Chicken

[cjsmith]

Recipe from 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.

Comments

[dr-scott.livejournal.com]

Looks like you're getting into the progressive refinement thing in cooking. If you make large batches, you can do two or three things a week and cover most of your entree needs. We often do 12 chicken breasts at a time, marinating then grilling outside, and use that for half our dinners for a week. When you have a repertoire of 6-8 main courses you can do without thinking, you're suddenly considered a good cook. :-)

[aelfie.livejournal.com]

Yes, more cornstarch. If you boil it for 60 seconds and it isn't thick enough, add more in small amounts. I generally start with a 1/3 cup of cornstarch with almost equal amounts of water (I like it to pour out easily). Add in small amounts (a couple of tablespoons at a time)and let boil for a bit in between. You don't want to add too much or else it will seize on you. And then you ruin thanksgiving. (long story)

Dry chicken prob: either cook for less time OR buy chicken with skin & bones. They help keep moisture in the meat in. Also nice trick is to stuff your lemon & rosemary under the skin & then brown ckicken, skin side down, for a few minutes in seperate pan till skin is brown, then add to crockpot with accumulated juices. Helps flavor even if it adds a few more minutes work.

Also keeping rosemary in to make sauce is cool, but I would strain it before I served. But that's just me. I love rosemary flavor. but I don't like chewing on it.

[gdmusumeci.livejournal.com]

A little more cornstarch will thicken things up nicely as far as your sauce goes. It's a delicate balance between too much and not enough, in my experience. I have a recipe for Sicilian breaded veal that involves rosemary -- I'll have to make it for lunch. I shall pass it along if it works out and if you're interested. :-)

[therobbergirl.livejournal.com]

I avoid cooking chicken in a crockpot if I want it to cook all day (such as while I'm at work). I like it best if it's been in there only four to six hours because of that dryness problem. Some people don't mind it, but you see, I'm not a big fan of chicken to start with so it has to be perfect because I'll like it even a little.

[tytso.livejournal.com]

Unlike using flour as a thickening agent (which is much tougher and something I've never gotten the hang of doing, having not done the french sauce cooking thing), cornstarch is pretty fast-acting; after adding cornstarch to the liquid, and stiring to distribute the cornstarch evenly across the mixture, once the mixture comes back to a boil, it should thicken right up within 15-30 seconds. You don't need to wait for a long time; if it isn't thick enough, just add more cornstarch. In fact, if you boil a corn-starch thickened sauce for more than about 3 minutes, it will likely thin out again. What I usually will do is mix some cornstarch with white wine or cream sherry, and then stir it until smooth, and then poor that in a bit at a time; it adds more flavor, and since you're adding it at the end of the cooking you don't have to sorry about as much of the aromatics in the wine getting driven off by the heat. I'll do this particularly when doing stirfry; although since there's a lot less liquid involved, usually I only need two teaspoons of corn starch mixed with about a quarter cup of white wine and/or sherry, and sometimes I won't use all of it, depending on how much liquid is in it.

I will often use tapioca starch instead of corn starch; there is a good article here that explains some of the tradeoffs between different kinds of thickeners (and there is a lot more than just corn starch).

I'm glad you're having fun experimenting with how to cook! It really isn't all that hard, and I find that even with the need to clean up, it can be faster than going out to eat at a restaurant, and since I enjoy futzing about in the kitchen, that's an additional bonus.