Recipes for when your house has been under construction for 153 days and looks like a particularly sad episode of Hoarders.
When bending ingredients to your will is literally the only thing that gives you any semblance of control š
Hello, chefs.
Letās start with gratitude. I am so thankful to have a roof over my head and the means to make it a beautiful space. I mean, seriously. Who gets to live in a real-life Pinterest board? Itās ridiculous. Iām so lucky. Iām also so anxious.
Iām a stress cleaner. Itās not unusual, after a particularly stressful day, to find me scrubbing the baseboards inside my closets with all of their contents emptied onto the bed. Iām in a constant state of tidying, fluffing pillows, arranging tchotchkes.
So imagine that girl living in a 900 square foot space (with another human and a dog) that is filled to the absolute mfing brim with boxes and building materials, all of which are collecting a layer of dust and construction grime that I canāt bring myself to clean because who the hell cleans a storage unit?
If youāre new here: Iām adding on a primary suite, entryway, and a walk-in pantry to my little East Nashville house. We started back in July.
Iāve realized that contractors are like a twentysomething straight dudeāthey give you just enough attention (one-ish task accomplished each week) to distract you from the fact that they otherwise mostly ignore you and still havenāt fixed that leak you told them about two months ago.
The spacial anxiety is one thing, but good grief, the MONEY! The DOLLARS! Despite having a very public medical emergency that maybe should have made me a millionaire, Iām just a regular degular girl with no legal settlement fortune, and thus have loans out to cover this project. The plan is to wrap all of those into a refinanced mortgage once the house is done, which seems like a solid plan, but my concerns are
how does that even work and
will capitalism still be a thing when this house is complete?
All I know is that your girl is about one protonās length away from burning it all and living in the chicken coop. The thing that makes me feel a little less unhinged is making food that tastes good.
This week:
Nothing says āIām in control, b*tchā like spatchcocking a chicken. And I really needed that this week. So here we go, chefs.
-Faith
Spatchcocked chicken
Iām gonna go out on a limb and assume that most of you have roasted a chicken before. There are one million ways to do it, and theyāre probably all delicious. But there are three little tricks that I think take a chicken from good to great:
Spatchcocking: Itās easier than it sounds if you have a really good pair of kitchen shears (I love Cutco, donāt judge). Just cut out the backbone and voila.
Rubbing a flavored butter inside the skin only so the herbs and garlic donāt get burnt while you cook.
Letting your chicken sit in the fridge UNCOVERED for at least two hours before you cook itāthe longer, the better. Itāll dry out the skin and make it extra crispy.
Thatās itāthose are my tricks. Hereās a recipe I love that uses all three, adapted from Melissa Clarkās masterpiece:
Spatchcock your whole chicken and lay it out on a baking sheet.
Mash a stick of softened butter with minced garlic, as many fresh and dried herbs as you can get your hands on, lemon zest, salt, and pepper. Wiggle the butter under the skin of the breasts, thighs, and drumsticks if you can. Save any leftover butter for serving. Refrigerate uncovered for at least two hours.
When youāre ready to cook, drizzle the top with a bit of olive oil, then roast at 450 for about 50 minutes, or until the thigh temp reads 165 degrees.
*Youāll have some sputtering. I put baking sheets on the rack below my chicken so it doesnāt land on the bottom of my oven, but you do you.
If youāre cooking for two, just slice off the legs (thigh and drumstick combined) to serve, as those are best crispy and fresh. Serve with crispy parm potatoes (boil, smash, pan fry in olive oil, then sprinkle parm on one side and flip. Cook for a minute or two, then repeat on the other side) and a vegetable. Donāt forget your leftover herb butter.
Slice and save the breasts for leftovers.
Bonus: The TikTok baked salad
Committing to a roast chicken means you need plan for what to do with the leftovers. I usually tell myself Iāll have it on a salad, but the lettuce makes me sad and it inevitably goes to waste. Enter: this mysterious-but-delicious salad. Youāll use every baking sheet in the house, but I promise itās worth it. For 2 huge servings:
Prepare 1 cup of quinoa on the stovetop. When itās done, toss with some chili oil (or regular EVOO if youāre not a spice person) and spread out on a baking sheet.
Toss 1/2 head of chopped cabbage (I used purple because thatās what Dan got and when asked why, he said, āis there another color of cabbage?ā) with some olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder, and spread out on a baking sheet. Do the same with 1/2 bunch of kale.
Roast the cabbage at 400 for 10 minutes, then add the kale and quinoa for another 10 minutes until everything is crispy and the cabbage is a bit caramelized.
While your stuff is baking, marinate 1/2 of a thinly-sliced red onion in 1/4 cup red wine vinegar, 1 tablespoon honey, salt, and pepper. Top your bowl with water until the onions are totally submerged.
When your vegetables are done, assemble them in serving bowls. Top with some marinated onions, crispy quinoa, and your leftover chicken.