Roast Chickens are handy and delicious but there are a few things you need to keep in mind.
1. You can't keep a roast chicken in the refrigerator forever. You will want to be sure to use the roast chicken with in two days or freeze it. If your going to freeze it you really should remove it from the carcass and store your roast chicken in a zip lock bag in bite size pieces in the refrigerator. That way if you want to use it on a busy day you'll have it ready to quickly defrost and use.
2. Once you slice off the chicken off the carcass go ahead and remove any left over meat and store it in the freezer in a zip lock bag. It will keep up to three months in the freezer and you can thaw it out overnight in the refrigerator over night to be used in a quick meal when you don't have much time.
3. You can make a delicious quick broth by putting the chicken carcass, a couple of peeled cut up carrots, a diced onion, and a couple of celery ribs into a stock pot and add enough water to cover the carcass. Add a heaping tablespoon of real butter and a teaspoon each of salt and black pepper and bring your water in the pot up to a boil and turn the heat down to simmer. Cook about an hour and then strain your broth off. Freeze your broth in one cup containers or keep a ice tray just for chicken broth and once it is frozen hard in the ice try put the ice cubes out into a zip lock bag and put in the freezer at once. This way you can take out just what you need.
Award Winning Roast Chicken Recipe
If you came here looking for an award winning roast chicken recipe then you've come to the right place. I have won awards with this recipe and everyone that tastes it says its the best roast chicken they have ever eaten. And it really is easy to make. And it really is delicious to eat. You want to start with a two to three pound fryer and your going to need a large zip lock bag. Mix the below ingredients together and then your going to want to place the thawed chicken into a gallon zip lock bag and pour the below ingredients in over the chicken and then zip the bag closed. Put the chicken in the refrigerator in the zip lock bag and about every two hours for at least eight hours turn the bag over to be sure all the chicken gets well coated with the marinade.
In a large bowl mix the below ingredients.
1. One Large Bottle Italian Dressing.
2. One Sixteen Ounce Beer , any brand will work but I use Budweiser.
3. One tablespoon Cajun Seasoning.
4. One Teaspoon Ground Sea Salt.
5. One Teaspoon Ground Black Pepper.
Mix the above five ingredients up together well and then pour them in the bag with the chicken. Make sure to shake the bag and turn it over in the refrigerator about every two hours for at least eight hours. After at least eight hours line a baking pan with tin foil and place your chicken with its breast down in the pan. Cover the chicken with another piece of tin foil and place it in a pre heated 375 degree oven for 45 minutes and then remove the tin foil you have covering the chicken. Cook your chicken until it reaches an internal temperature of 160 degrees on a meat thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the chicken. Don't overcook your chicken. You'll end up with a moist tender delicious chicken that will have you wanting more. I guarantee it. If you give it a try you'll find that turkeys cooked this way are just as delicious and you can use turkey in place of chicken in any of the below 15 ways to doctor a roast chicken.
15 Ways To Doctor A Roast Chicken
1. Shred or chunk the chicken while its still warm and place it in a bowl of cooked pasta and then add two tablespoons of basil or regular pesto. Mix it all up together very well and serve on individual serving plates. Sprinkle the top of each serving with a few roasted pine nuts.
2. Slice your chicken off in thin slices and then put thin slices of Swiss cheese on top and put it under a broiler until the cheese just melts. Serve your chicken and cheese on slices of multi grain wheat toast and add slices of avocado and a little mayonnaise.
3. You can make a delicious open face chicken sandwich by putting slices of warm chicken on your favorite toast and then add slices of bacon and thin slices of ripe tomato. Top with slices of Munster cheese and put it under the broiler until your cheese melts. This is a wonderful sandwich served open face or with some honey mustard spread on a second piece of toast and then cap the sandwich for one of the best chicken sandwiches you will ever eat.
4. Serve your chicken on a bed of fresh cooked spinach with a fruit chutney or your favorite brand of salsa.
5. Shred your roasted chicken and serve it on a Caesar Salad or on your favorite salad. Either way it will be delicious.
6. You can serve your warm chicken slices on a plate and top with thin sliced button mushrooms that have been sauteed in olive oil with a little dry white wine added.
7. Shred your roast chicken and layer it onto warm flour tortillas with black beans, shredded Mexican cheese and your favorite salsa. You can also add thin slices of ripe avocado to the mixture. Roll up each tortilla up and secure with a toothpick.
8. You can spread thin slices of roast chicken with Dijon mustard and then sprinkle on ground black pepper and fresh fine chopped tarragon and heat it well in the oven to combine the flavors. This is excellent served on Pumpernickel toast.
9. Buy a can of Chicken Gravy and after heating it in a small pot serve it over homemade mashed potatoes and thin sliced roast chicken.
10. Chop your chicken up into small bite size pieces and toss with halved seedless grapes, chopped pecans, a little minced onion, some fresh chopped tarragon, and just enough mayonnaise to pull the salad together. Serve this salad in tomatoes that you have cut in half and hallowed out to hold the chicken salad. I guarantee you people will love this.
11. Spread warm flour tortillas with the salad in number 10 above and then roll up and slice into pin wheels. Secure each pinwheel with a toothpick. You will find you have just created a wonderful appetizer that people will love.
12. Chop up your chicken into bite size pieces and mix it with a can or jar of red curry paste. Heat it and serve it over hot buttered rice.
13. Spread a little bit of honey mustard on thin slices of sourdough bread and on the bread put a layer of thin sliced roast chicken, a layer of cranberry sauce and a layer of cheddar cheese and then carefully grill the sandwiches in butter on both sides until the bread is brown and the cheese is melted.
14. You can make an excellent meal by heating a can of chicken gravy and on squares of corn bread place very thin slices of roast chicken and then put a ladle of gravy over the top. Sprinkle just a bit of sage on the top of each serving and you'll have a wonderful meal.
15. Make a delicious homemade chicken salad out of shredded chicken, pickle relish, minced onion, and minced hard boiled eggs and chop all your ingredients up and once every thing is well mixed add in a teaspoon each of Dijon Mustard and Mayonnaise and mix everything up together well. This will make a wonderful sandwich on your favorite toast.
And like I said you can use turkey in place of chicken in any of the above 15 ways to doctor roast chicken. A lot of people only eat turkey at Thanksgiving or Christmas but there is no reason you can't have turkey any time of the year and make any of the 15 meal ideals above with turkey.
If you have any ideals post them below and let us all know. I hope you make the recipe for Award Winning Roast Chicken above because it is really delicious and really easy to make. I make it that way all the time and people often tell me it is the best roast chicken they have ever tasted. If you make it please come back and make a post and let us all know how it turned out for you. And thanks for taking the time to read my Hub Page on Roast Chicken.
