Day One of My Chicken Experiment – Rosemary Roasted Chicken
One of the unfortunate realities of marrying a man in the military is that as soon as you get used to him being around, he has to leave again. Such is the case for me right now. On the 2nd of this month (less than one month after arriving in Germany), My Soldier left for a training mission and won’t be back until the very end of the month. Just as I had slipped into my normal routine of bringing a picnic lunch to post for us and making dinner every night, he had to leave.
So, I reverted back to my days as a single woman and started cooking for one again. What is great about it this time is that in the past, I’ve sort of neglected feeding myself properly because I was just cooking for me. Somehow I came up with excuses as to why I didn’t need to cook and how, of course, an almond butter and jelly sandwich is a sufficient dinner for an adult. But, since I had already fallen into the routine of making a proper dinner every night, I stuck with it – even after My Soldier left.
Oddly enough, while chicken is the main component of a butcher’s case in the states, it is not such a common find here in small town Germany. Pork in various forms of schnitzel, sausage, bottled forcemeat, and processed deli slices is definitely the primary find. I never thought I would say it, but living here really makes me appreciate chicken more. So, as an ode to my American standby meat, I decided to give myself a challenge:
How many meals can a single person get out of one chicken?
Here are my results from Day One:
ROSEMARY ROASTED CHICKEN
1 (3.5 pound) chicken, patted dry with paper towels
1 small onion, cut into chunks
6 garlic cloves
4 springs fresh rosemary
3 Tbs. olive oil
lots of salt and pepper
2 small yukon gold potatoes, diced into 1 inch pieces, optional
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Loosen the skin at the bottom and each breast and each thigh, and place a sprig of rosemary under the skin. Try to stretch the rosemary over the entire length of each breast. Also, try to loosen the skin enough on the leg that the sprig reaches to both the thigh and the drumstick.
3. Place the onion and garlic inside the cavity of the chicken.
4. Rub the entire chicken down with the olive oil and lots and lots of salt and pepper. If you think you have way over salted the chicken you probably need to salt it some more.
5. Place the chicken in a 10-inch cast iron pan, scatter the potatoes around the chicken, and drizzle them with a little extra oil.
6. Roast the chicken until the skin is browned and crispy and until the breast is 160 degrees internally.
7. Allow the chicken to rest for about 10 minutes before serving. Waiting allows the juices to remain inside the chicken and keeps it super moist.
After eating one serving, put the remaining cooled chicken and any leftover bones into a large container or ziploc bag to use for tomorrows’ lunch…
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Comments
Thanks, Molly! I will definitely keep an eye out for the Biona products. Unfortunately, I live in a super tiny town, so a lot products that would be in larger cities just aren’t available to me here. But, I am planning to take a trip to Frankfurt this week, so I’ll have to stock up 
hey rachel! from one fellow allergy-friendly blogger in europe to another, i just thought i’d reach out. hope everything goes well for you – i can’t imagine how hard it must be sometimes while your husband is gone for work – but it must be quite exciting to explore a new place
also, i was reminded of your post recently about finding allergy-friendly foods to eat in germany. have you heard of the brand biona? http://www.windmillorganics.com/stockists.php?r=18 it’s all over the place here in london, but as it’s actually a german brand i thought maybe you’d see it all over the place? anyway, they’ve got a huge range of allergy-friendly stuff, perhaps order online? hope all’s well! molly x