Mamalicious in the City

Well, it’s a new year, and with it a slightly new approach to my diet.  I’m still eating clean, but after a few weeks of staring at that sticky dial on the scale, I had to admit that things weren’t working.

At first, I felt disheartened.  I wanted to finally stop analyzing my food in excruciating detail, and I thought clean eating could provide me that freedom.  But it turns out that mindless eating is always going to be a recipe for failure.  And, anyway, things could be worse in my life, right?

So I downloaded the Live Strong calorie counting app, MyPlate, and I’ve started tracking my calories more closely.  It’s actually not as difficult as I’d imagined.  Essentially, I’m just eating more fruits and veggies, and a bit more protein.

On that note, how about a chicken recipe or two?  I recently decided to try spatchcocking a chicken.  I figured with a name like that, what could go wrong?

The great thing about this recipe is that you can stretch one chicken into three dinners.  Roasted chicken the first night.  Chicken salad the second night.  And then you can make stock for polenta, soup or anything else you cook with chicken broth.

I first learned about spatchcocked chicken from this post over at thekitchn.  So I consulted a few more “how to” posts.  I like this one.  In short, you’re cutting out the neckbone and butterflying the chicken so it lies flat.  You need a chicken that weighs at least three pounds.

Once you’ve finished spatchcocking the chicken, mix together 1/4 cup dijon mustard, 4 chopped cloves of garlic, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt, 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper, the leaves from three sprigs of thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves) and the zest of one lemon.  Gently separate the skin from the chicken and rub the mixture all over the chicken meat.  Drizzle olive oil and a few squeezes of lemon juice over the chicken skin, and then quarter the lemon and tuck the quarters all over.  Toss some salt and a few grinds of pepper on the skin, and roast the chicken at 425 degrees for about an hour. 

Enjoy the chicken pieces the first night, and then pull the remaining chicken for dinner the next night.  You should have about 2 cups of chicken.  In a bowl, combine that chicken with 1/2 cup homemade or any good quality mayonaisse, one chopped Fuji apple, one chopped medium onion, and one teaspoon curry powder.  Season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve in wraps or your favorite whole wheat or whole grain bread.

Finally, throw the carcass, neckbone, a whole onion (skin on), a few carrots and celery stalks and some whole peppercorns into a stockpot with as much water as you like, and simmer on low until the stock is a nice golden color.  This typically takes overnight or longer, and you won’t be disappointed.  There is nothing like homemade chicken stock.  With it, I made some polenta that I served with braised bacon and chard stems.  Amazingly fabulous.  I’ll post that recipe in a few days.