Wilma's Toasted Chicken Adventure

My Saturday morning ritual, made even nicer when the weather cooperates, is to mosey on down to the Fitler Square farmer's market that is a block from my house. I always have a firm budget, and the prices are so good that I am usually able to stock up on fresh goodies for the entire week. Last Saturday it began as usual. I grabbed my staples plus some veggies that caught my eye. Upon paying I realized I had come in under budget. Armed with a few extra dollars I suddenly found myself grabbing a whole chicken. Shocking I know.

So I walked home thinking of the delicious homemade chicken stock and pot pie I could make with the adorable little free range, organic, locally grown chicken tucked in my bag, happy as a clam. I promptly shoved the thing in my fridge where I figured it would be safe for a day. So I went about my weekend, with the images of a roasted chicken with golden crispy skin dancing in my head.

Skip forward to Sunday afternoon. I opened my fridge to find that despite my best efforts the sucker had leaked some unsavory juices all over the place. The first sign that this was yet another experiment gone horribly wrong. And as Slagheap says, this is a benefit of being vegetarian. You don't have to disinfect your entire kitchen after opening up a package of tofu. Not to be deterred I scrubbed my hands, the floor, my fridge etc obsessively and vowed to be more careful in the future.

It was not until I got the thing on a plate that I realized what I had gotten myself into. Let's look a little more closely at this situation. My oven does not work. If I turn it on, it will immediately heat up to 500 degrees and set off my smoke alarm. Usually it is not a problem. My trusty toaster oven has served me well turning out everything from lasagna to duck breast. Well, I stood there for quite some time, staring at the chicken, then at my toaster oven. I wish you could have been inside my head at that moment as I pictured every possible angle at which I could shove the dumb bird in there, convinced it would work. The cooking shows I had on in the background mocked me with images of beautiful roasted chickens, pulled whole out of the oven and browned to perfection.

After putting up a a good fight I grabbed my butcher knife, ready to carve the thing manageable pieces. It might not be as pretty carved up, but I was having a my golden brown chicken one way or another. Well let me tell you something about a whole raw chicken. I'm no animal lover (I mean I like animals as much as the next person) but this thing just looked pathetic. It looked enough like a dead animal that I had visions of the poor little guy getting up on his chicken legs and walking around. I not so gingerly tried to just hack into it, hoping that my knife would be sharp enough to quickly break it down into something that no longer resembled Chicken Little. Well it took me so long that I had to keep taking breaks to wash my hands and gather my thoughts. The skin and bones were just a little too much for me. I finally got through the top layer at which point I frantically called my dad to ask him why there was a bag in my chicken and what was in it. Unfortunately for me he was not there.

Long story short I took a deep breath, tried to ignore the little ribs poking out and just went for it. I could not have been happier when that thing was in the oven, safely on it's way to becoming food.

Meanwhile, the easy part began. I chopped up some veggies and other ingredients:

2 large carrots, sliced into big chunks
1 onions peeled and sliced into wedges
4 Garlic cloves, peeled and left whole
1 bulb fennel, sliced in half and including the fronds
Top and core of a bell pepper (Save the good parts for another dish)
2 bay leaves, whole

Then I sauteed them briefly in my cast iron dutch oven with a drizzle of olive oil. (Any large stock pot would work.) Before they start softening or browning pour water over them enough to cover them plus a few inches depending on how big your pot is. Unless you have magically clean tasting tap water I think it's worth the extra step if you have a filter to use filtered water. Simmer on medium low heat stirring occasionally. You should also liberally salt and pepper the stock at this point. Let simmer for at least 30 mins while the chicken is toasting.

When the chicken is done and nicely golden brown, let it cool slightly. Pull off the useable meat and set aside. Throw the remaining bits (should be mostly bone and cartilage, you can discard most of the skin) into the stock pot. Make sure that the water does not come a rolling boil, and in fact I turned the heat down to low. It should simmer steadily. Add more liquid as it evaporates and stir occasionally.

This should simmer for about an hour and a half. If it doesn't smell rich and flavorful and turn a nice rich brown color then it is not done. If you use the whole fennel like I did then it might be tinged green which is perfectly normal. After about an hour and a half turn the heat off so that it can cool. You do not want it to burn you. There are several methods you can use to strain it. Lacking fancy equipment I used a spider (a slotted spoon might work) to fish out all of the solid materials. Normal human beings would probably want to strain it through some sort of sieve. I would recommend that if you go through all this trouble that you make as much as you can in one batch and freeze the leftovers. My chicken pot pie recipe using this stock will follow.