yummy – Adeline Alley

My mom is known for her roast chicken. She takes them to people when they are sick, busy, sad, etc. This is her thing. I have always loved being on the receiving end of this gift but have never roasted a chicken of my own. For years I was intimidated by roasting a whole chicken. Years, like until this one, and we’re coming up on the end of 2015. BUT I have now conquered this chicken twice and am here to preach about it. Im pretty sure it will be a go-to of mine for the rest of my life, at least once a month.

Healthy, simple, homemade, guaranteed leftovers that can be repurposed a zillion different ways. Yep. This is a winner and I’m no longer a chicken — get it?…

Roast Chicken

4-6 pound whole organic chicken (the smaller the better)

2 onions, cut into eighths

1-2 lemons, several thin, round slices then just cut pieces

6-10 cloves of garlic, peeled

Rosemary sprigs

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

This will require a good bit of handling raw chicken so be prepared by having Clorox wipes and soap on hand. But this is not half as bad or as scary as I thought it would be! You can do it.

Rinse and pat dry small, whole chicken.

Chop onions and lemons

Peel whole cloves of garlic and cut rosemary sprigs

Arrange 4 slices of lemon and 2-3 sprigs of rosemary under skin of chicken (you will need to sort of separate the skin from the chicken to slide lemons in – sounds peculiar but isn’t bad).

Fill cavity of your chicken with several pieces of lemon, onion, and rosemary. As well as season it heavily with salt and pepper.

Rub the outside of the chicken with olive oil, then season with sea salt and pepper.

Place the chicken on top of a bed of onions, and garlic. **Be sure your garlic is underneath the chicken so it roasts but does not burn.**

Preheat oven to 400, once you put chicken it reduce heat to 350. Roast your chicken at 20 minutes per pound,basting every twenty minutes. This sounds cumbersome but just set the timer on your oven or phone and it’s easy as pie. If you chicken starts to get too brown towards the end, cover with aluminum foil. If you have a quick-read meat thermometer use this for double checking your chicken so it is not over or under done–it should be around 165F.

After removing from the oven let rest 10 minutes before carving.

Raw chicken, ick. After washing and patting dry, I stand the chicken up on top of paper towels so it can continue to dry while I chop onions, lemon and prepare garlic.

As you can see there is no reason to be shy with your seasoning.
Basting. Use either a baster, silicon brush or a big spoon.

Ta-da!

Tomato, tomatoe…Tomato Pie! Tomato Pie is one of my very favorite summer dishes. It’s my go to as soon as I can get my hands on good summer tomatoes. I’m yet to find great ones in Nashville; these tomatoes came up from a friend’s garden in Mississippi with my parents. I have loved putting them to good use!

Tomato Pie

Ingredients:

1 store bought pie crust

3 large summer tomatoes (I used 2 large, 2 small)

1 Vidalla onion

2 cloves of garlic

Fresh Basil

1/2 c. Mozzarella, grated

1/2 c. Sharp Cheddar Cheese, grated

1/4 c. Mayonnaise

Several dashes of Tabassco

2 tsp. salt (to get water out of tomatoes)

Freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Slice the tomatoes, place around a colander and cover with salt to remove water.

Prepare topping. Combine 3/4 of the cheese, all of the mayonnaise, Tabassco, 1/2 of your basil and black pepper in a small bowl.

Place pie crust in pie plate, and pierce it with a fork. Bake pie crust for 10 minutes at 400.

While pie crust is baking, sautée onion until softened and add garlic.

After 10 minutes, you will begin to layer your pie. Add tomatoes first then top with your sautéed mixture and the remaining 1/4 of your cheddar and mozzarella combination. Add another layer of tomatoes then add basil and freshly cracked black pepper, finish with your prepared topping.

Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes. After 20 minutes add aluminum foil around the edges of your pie so the crust does not burn.