How to Cook a Whole Chicken

Cooking! It's become a much more exciting hobby since quarantine, along with baking (we've hit the highest per capita sourdough starter per house, ever, I think) and gardening.

The past few years, we have tried to shift our cooking from buying the ingredients we want, to buying what is on sale and making something delicious with it.

Of course, I always keep staples at home (onions, spices, &c) so this makes it easier.

I was able to pick up a whole chicken last week. It had been flattened in the package and I thought it was spatchcocked. It turned out that it had just been squished, but I picked it up for 99 cents!

I had set my sights on spatchcocking it, though, so I hit up Duck Duck Go to find a recipe. I settled on this one , but didn't have lemons, beer, or carrots. It turned out not to be a problem. In fact, this was one of my best recipes ever.

If you want to make this like I did, substitute the carrots with diced peeled potatoes, and the beer for wine. I also threw a bay leaf into the broth.

The result was a delicate, juicy, absolutely top notch chicken.

Also, after removing the chicken from the dutch oven, I covered it with foil for ten minutes while I removed the potatoes with a slotted spoon, then strained the juices for a gravy. The potatoes didn't really need gravy, but I'll never waste those juices!

What is the best dish you have made during quarantine?

-Jeff