Spatchcock Chicken

I know the title, really, it makes it sound rather suspect but if you've ever cooked a chicken like this, I bet you'll continue to do so.

I wasn't actually going to blog about this, but when I told some friends about it, they were intrigued. 
And I realized I'd not taken enough pictures of the process, but I did take some.  Here's a link with lots of pictures, showing how to do it. 

A Spatchcocked Chicken is a whole chicken which has been cooked 'flat' on a roasting pan.
It cooks much faster, the meat stays lovely and moist and it's dead easy to do.
And did I mention that the skin gets lovely and crispy? 
Sometimes that's the best part.   

Basically, you remove the backbone, turn the chicken over, break the breastbone, flatten the chicken out on the pan and roast.

Some instructions I had said to use a kitchen shear to cut the backbone out, and it did kinda work.  I actually have two kinds of shears, but honestly, my hands got kinda greasy from the meat, and they slipped around,  so I ended up using a heavy chef knife to cut through the bones.  

As you can see, once the back bone has been cut out, you can just lift it away.  Save it to use when you make some chicken stock later on.  I just roasted it on the pan with the chicken, and saved it.

Once you've broken the breastbone, flatten it out on a roasting pan.  I brushed the chicken with some melted butter in which I'd put some poultry seasoning.   I then sprinkled it with a little salt, and roasted them for just under 45 minutes at 450 degrees.  You want the internal temp on the breast to reach at least 165 degrees.
BTW, if you also roast the thighs and legs, they need to reach 175 degrees.  But they all seem to cook just fine together. 

 I also cut the very ends of the wings off, and let them roast on the pan as well.  They ended up in a pot along with the backbone for stock. 

And this is the result, a gorgeous browned chicken breast, which I sliced up and served with a gravy I'd made from the fond ( the lovely brown stuff from the roasting pan, so good). 

I elected to cut the thigh and drumsticks off,  and roast them separately because I had plans for them.  Delicious plans.

I roasted them in a separate pan for 15 minutes, then took them out of the oven, brushed them with some delicious sweet chile sauce mixed with some berry preserves, (the sweet hot chile sauce was given to me by a friend and is so good all by itself).  I let them roast for another 15 minutes, and then basted them again, after another 15 minutes.  They were falling off the bone tender, and I have just enough of the sweet hot chile sauce to do another batch of chicken but this time, I'm doing wings.

There was just enough chicken left for two lunches.  I took the meat off of the bones and feasted.

So there you have it.  A truly moist, delicious roast chicken ready in under an hour.
Hello,  really, under an hour.  This particular chicken was about 6 pounds, and if I'd roasted it whole in the oven, it would have taken a lot longer to cook.
I didn't cook it on a rack, but just on the pan itself and it worked out very well.  

Triple Lemon and Dried Cranberry Bundt Cake

I love to bake cakes and do so every couple of weeks for the Legion Cake Raffle, as well as baking cakes to order.
They raffle off chances on the cake and the winner usually shares the cake with everyone at the time.
Although, they've been known to take them home as well.
The money raised from the raffle goes towards community projects, and is my small way of giving back to the community.

When I bake a bundt cake it always seems to go over well,  and this week was no exception.
I had received several lemons at Farmshare and decided that with all that I should make a lemon themed cake.
I danced with making a Lemon Chiffon Cake, but I've made one of those in the past.   And it was good.
I wanted to candy some of the lemon slices, but ended up putting way too much sugar on the lemon slices to candy them, and they didn't turn out that well, but they taste good.   I've candied Orange and Lemon slices before.
I did reserve the sugar syrup I cooked the lemon slices in,  and set that aside.

My take on this?  It was about perfect.  There was a lovely lemony flavor without it being overbearing.  

Triple Lemon and Dried Cranberry Bundt Cake

Yield: 12-15 Servings

Author: Sid's Sea Palm Cooking adapted from my mother's recipe

prep time: 15 Mcook time: 55 Mtotal time: 70 M

This light, bright bundt cake is almost the perfect ratio of lemon flavor to cake.

ingredients:

Cake

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 4 eggs
• 3 cups Self Rising Flour
• 1 tsp. Baking Powder
• 1/2 cup milk ( add a tablespoon or two more if the batter seems too thick)
• Zest from 2 lemons, reserve a 1/4 of the zest for the glaze
• Juice from 1 lemon
• 1 cup dried cranberries, chopped
• 1 tablespoon cognac or brandy

Candied Lemon Syrup

• 1 thinly sliced lemon
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup water

Glaze

• 1 1/2 cups confectioner sugar
• juice from 1 lemon
• 1 teaspoon water (if needed)

Topping

• zest from 1/2 lemon
• 1/4 cup sugar (more if desired)
• 1-2 tablespoons finely minced dried cranberries

instructions:

How to cook Triple Lemon and Dried Cranberry Bundt Cake

Cake

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees, grease and flour a 10 cup bundt pan
2. Sift flour and baking powder together, if desired. Add the lemon zest and stir together. Set aside.
3. Roughly chop the dried cranberries and toss with 1- 2 tablespoons of the flour mixture.
4. Cream the butter and sugar together until white or the sugar has mainly dissolved. Add the eggs, one at a time and mix in. The mixture will look a little curdled. Add a couple tablespoons of flour and mix in. Then add 1/2 the flour and mix, add the milk, mix, and finish off with the remaining flour.
5. Fold in the floured cranberries, and pour the batter into a greased and floured bundt pan.
6. Bake at 325 degrees for 50-55 minutes, checking for doneness after 50 minutes.

Candied Lemon Syrup

1. Heat water to boiling, add the sugar and stir until dissolved. Add the lemon slices and simmer over low heat for one hour, minimum.
2. Take the lemon slices out of the syrup, dip in sugar, place on silpat or nonstick parchment paper and bake at 250 degrees for 30 minutes, turn the lemon slices over and bake an additional 20 minutes or until dry.
3. Keep the lemon slices to decorate the cake or place in a covered container for snacking on.

Glaze

1. Mix 1 -1 1/2 cups confections sugar with the juice of one lemon, and drizzle that evenly over the cake. You can make it thinner with the addition of a teaspoon of water or thicker by adding more confectioners sugar.

Topping

1. Using the reserved lemon zest, add it to a 1/4 cup sugar along with 1-2 tablespoons finely minced dried Cranberries. Mix together and sprinkle over the top of the cake to decorate it a little.

Assembly of cake

1. When the cake comes out of the oven, let rest in the bundt pan for 2-3 minutes and then invert onto a cooling rack.
2. Place a plate under the cooling rack and cake. Take 1/2-3/4 cup of the lemon sugar syrup and drizzle evenly over the hot cake. The sugar syrup will soak into the cake. You can also take skewer and poke holes in the cake if you wish. The excess sugar syrup will collect on the plate. I use the plate I'm going to serve the cake on, as the excess syrup will just soak into the cake later on. Let the cake cool for at least 2 hours, then top with a glaze.
3. Mix 1 -1 1/2 cups confections sugar with the juice of one lemon, and drizzle that evenly over the cake. You can make it thinner with the addition of a teaspoon of water or thicker by adding more confectioners sugar.
4. Drizzle that evenly over the cake, in a pleasing manner. Picking up the cake, carefully transfer to the serving platter.
5. Topping- optional
6. Using the reserved lemon zest, add it to a 1/4 cup sugar along with 1-2 tablespoons finely minced dried Cranberries. Mix together and sprinkle over the top of the cake to decorate it a little.
7. Serve with a smile.

All recipes and their respective images are either original or adapted and credited, and are all the sole property of Sid's Sea Palm Cooking © 2011-2019, with all rights reserved thereof.

Created using The Recipes Generator

Community Potluck for September 2019

This is how I filled my plate last night at the Community Potluck.   Just in case someone missed being able to attend, I just wanted to let you know what you missed.
And that doesn't include the desserts either, or the piece of quiche I shared with my DH.

I tell you if you go home hungry after one of these gatherings, it's your problem.
We do also encourage people to bring their own plates and cutlery, in the interests of being green, however, we also do supply plates, cutlery and glasses just in case.

This is a community potluck and one we encourage everyone to attend.

As usual I'm amazed by not only the variety, but also the total deliciousness of all the dishes.   What strikes me as funny though is that sometimes, there appears to be theme for the various offerings.
Last night we had several seafood dishes. 
Which is all good.
   
Take a look at what was brought and enjoyed.

This was a Fish Dip with a lovely zing from some horseradish. 

I admit to taking the easy way out and made some Deviled Eggs.

But someone had to bring some.  I mean Deviled Eggs and Potlucks go together, don't they?
 Chips and Dip

Crudite aka veggie platter

Coleslaw, one of my all time favorites

Shredded Pork - I didn't get a shot of the buns though, but I think people know what they look like.

Loaded Summer Cauliflower Salad

Mini quiche-

Crab and Red Snapper Cakes,

Pasta Salad

Seafood Quiche

Green Salad

Chicken Nuggets

And of course, Pineapple with the Santa toothpick holder

The table in all of its glory, well, most of its glory.

There were also lots of desserts.
This pretty pink cake, Strawberry I believe

Pie

Carrot Cake

Lemon Meringue Pie

All recipes and their respective images are either original or adapted and credited, and are all the sole property of Sid's Sea Palm Cooking © 2011-2019, with all rights reserved thereof.

First Monday Favorites - September 2019 - 34

It's time for First Monday Favorites again.  
I started this link party because I missed a blogger club called Secret Recipe Club.  We would be assigned a blog to search and make recipes from, and then post the recipes on Mondays. 
Well that club is no more, but I'm still blogging, and thought it would be great to showcase favorite recipes from the previous month. 

So here it is.
I had a hard time deciding which recipe I made last month would be a repeat, and finally, decided on these pancakes. Gluten Free - Keto Friendly Pancakes
Cause who doesn't like pancakes?
And they're not only keto friendly, gluten free,  but also delicious.
Which is and should be the deciding factor when it comes to food. 

I can't wait to see what my fellow bloggers are sharing this month. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter