Equipment
Roasting pan or ceramic casserole

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

2. Cut the onions into wedges and the potatoes into 1-inch cubes. Spread them over the bottom of the baking dish.

3. In a small dish, combine salt and pepper in a 2:1 ratio.

4. Open the chicken over the sink and let any residual juices or blood drain. Reach into the cavity to see if there are any giblets left inside. If so remove them, and either discard them or save them to make soup stock at a later time. You’ll want to take a paper towel and pat dry your chicken. Please DO NOT rinse your chicken; running water and raw chicken can help spread salmonella.

5. Place the chicken breast side up over the bed of onions and potatoes. Drizzle the exterior and the cavity of the chicken with olive oil, and then sprinkle liberally with the salt and pepper blend.

6. If you have them on hand, you could put lemon or orange wedges, garlic cloves, or fresh herbs in the cavity at this point to infuse a bit more flavor.

7. Put the chicken in the oven, and set the timer for one hour (the general rule is 20 minutes for every pound of chicken you’re cooking).

8. Test the chicken for doneness. This can be done in a few ways. One is to jiggle the drumstick a little and see if the juices run clear (clear juices means it’s done, red juices means it’s not ready yet). You can also insert an instant-read thermometer into the thickest part of the chicken. It’s done if it reads 165. If the chicken isn’t ready, put it back in the oven for 10-15 minutes and re-test.

9. Place your chicken on a platter over the bed of roasted potatoes and onions. Enjoy!

NOTE: To flavor your chicken just a bit more you can apply an herb butter. This requires you to chop fresh herbs like rosemary or thyme, and mash them into room-temperature butter. Carefully lift the chicken skin to prevent ripping, and massage the butter under the skin so it spread throughout the chicken.

Laura Troyani heads up Marketing and Business Development for Plummelo. Not content with just being another behind-the-scenes pencil pusher, Laura decided to give blogging a shot and writes practical, everyday tips for the home cook (or aspiring home cook). Laura’s favorite foods are ice cream, olive oil, ice cream, parmesan cheese, ice cream, and occasionally ice cream.

I’ve always been wimpy when it comes to preparing meat. This phobia includes poultry, and does not exclude even the easiest roast chicken. I usually end up buying a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken.

It’s not about getting slimy or touching the guts, or even the risk of salmonella–sometimes I don’t even wear those disposable plastic gloves I keep in my kitchen. It’s not the carving or plating, or even the deboning (which can be an athletic feat in itself).

For Christmas this past year I received not one but two new digital meat thermometers, which are helping to slowly allay any past fears of failing to attain the proper and safe temperature of the meat–so it’s not that.

I haven’t exactly nailed it down yet, but I think the present fear lies somewhere in the not knowing what the inside of the bird looks like… and the possibility of it turning out less than perfectly. It may be something I need to take to a shrink’s couch. That’s an issue to explore later.

You’ll know from my previous posts that, one, I am working my way through conquering kitchen fears, and two, I adore a good roast chicken. I’m not sure if it’s actually my love for it, or the incredible acclaim it receives from my husband. He dies a little death when he gains knowledge that meat (of any type) on bones (imperative) has made its way into our house. Something harkens back to the primitive man in him: the floor pounds as he gallops into the kitchen then proceeds to gnaw like a voracious animal once he gets his paws on the bones. I love it, though. It makes me feel like my kitchen exploits are worthwhile. Any cook will agree that a voracious eater is the prize.

The last time I wrote about rotisserie chicken, I cheated (like I always do) and bought a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken to make two different recipes out of one bird. But, seriously–at many stores I’ve found that the rotisserie is actually cheaper than the raw bird! When you can buy a bird already cooked for a few dollars less than the unknown quantity of raw flesh, why wouldn’t you? For the challenge, I guess. And for the ability to tailor it to your tastes. To control the way it turns out (one of my fears). (This price difference isn’t always the case, however.)

So in celebration of my husband’s adoration of meat, and in an effort to peel back the layers of my fear, I set about cooking a Perfect Roast Chicken last night. A friend of mine who happens to be a chicken lover–ask her if there is a chicken dish she hasn’t tried–highly recommended this Martha Stewart recipe. It was indeed the perfect roast chicken. The recipe calls for stuffing a whole punctured lemon into the cavity, which provided a delicious citrus aroma and perfectly juicy meat.

Cooking a whole chicken has long-term benefits. I often make it last through a few recipes. Another time, I will use Martha Stewart’s suggestion for the pan gravy and serve the cooked meat as the main dish, but this week I will stretch it out and serve it for lunch as a salad in Quinoa Salad with Chicken, Grapes, and Almonds (Whole Foods) and dinner in these Chicken Enchiladas (Cooking Light) for Cinco de Mayo.

Sarah Fullerton, content marketing & editing. Armed with a masters in journalism from Northwestern, a passion for all things cooking, and a perpetual oven mitt, Sarah loves nothing more than to camp out in the kitchen with a new recipe, interpret it creatively (a dash of this, a dash of that), and then surprise her husband and daughter, her friends, and herself with the results. She can be contacted at sarah [at] plummelo [dot] com.

We don’t have hosting duties this year, so I’ll make a flourless chocolate torte to bring to my in-laws. That’s for the first night. The second night of Passover, I’ll bring this addictive matzoh buttercrunch. Served with a simple fruit salad, it’s a sweet ending to the meal.

A few other recommendations: Chicken marbella is a fabulous dish to serve. Roasted potatoes and grilled/roasted asparagus are good accompaniments. Another winning side dish: Leek tomato quinoa. You won’t even miss the chametz.

Let me first tell you about how Dan and I usually get our meal on the table. Many of our dinners are planned over email with subject lines like, “What’s for din din tonight?” With both of us toiling away at our respective jobs all day it can be hard to plan our meals in advance. In an ideal world, I would map out everything for the week on Sunday, but The Dan Factor can often work against this since he enjoys the spontaneity of deciding a meal the day of.

This is where our planning and shopping styles begin to diverge—but for the sake of love, let’s say our differences complement each other perfectly.

Our trips to the grocery store are often met with this same challenge: I have my list mapped out by aisle, and Dan is spur of the moment—finding inspiration in the endless options in the produce and meat aisles and spontaneously adding them to the cart. (I do confess, however, that some of his best meals have come from this approach; the pork butt for pulled pork was probably my favorite.)

As the baker in the duo, everything to me is mapped out in advance and I know that an exact amount of each ingredient will yield a cake, or a bread–I think of it as a science, so I need to be slightly more planning-oriented. But as the chef, Dan doesn’t need to follow a recipe and feels comfortable experimenting.

Both self-taught, by TV and an endless supply of foodie magazines, we have managed to master what most couples often fear: cooking together.

As we thought about what to make for this year’s dinner I was reminded of the first dinner Dan cooked for me. The menu was delivered in advance via email, and I still have it. We thought Valentine’s Day would be the perfect opportunity to re-create that meal.

In the dessert department, I decided to create a surprise dish for Dan and he had to guess the secret ingredient. For Valentine’s Day I had to go with a decadent chocolate treat. The molten cake’s secret ingredient? Espresso powder. I’m pleased to say, I stumped Dan on this one.

We’ve learned to cook together and share the triumphs and failures that go along with it. This Valentine’s Day dinner was a success, but I’m sure we’ll have some more obstacles in the kitchen. And whether the meal is planned a week in advance or on the spot we aim to make it as delicious as possible!

Don’t forget the Champagne and the romance. These are both key ingredients.

Photos by Melissa Devereaux

Girlfriends will find any excuse to get together. And what better way to spend a cold Saturday than with food and friends. In order to justify our absence from our husbands and kids, we decided we’d better find a way to benefit them as well.

And girlfriends trust each other. Girlfriends share their opinions about everything–recipes and food are no exception. Most women I know are always looking for their next batch of great recipes, so we decided to get together and test some out.

The ultimate goal was to come home with four meals to enjoy throughout the week (or stash in the freezer for a busy night).

We accomplished several things during our three hours together this weekend: quality time, trying new recipes, and preparing meals to take home for our families. Here is how it went.

I invited 5 girlfriends who, like me, are busy moms who are into cooking and trying new recipes but are short on time. Six people was the perfect size. The dads planned on staying home for some quality time with the little ones.

I looked through my recipes on Plummelo for a few important criteria: little to no cooking on prep day; highly freezeable; no more than about 10 ingredients each; and using relatively inexpensive ingredients. We narrowed it down to 4. We wanted to start out with an attainable goal.

I saved these 4 recipes to My Recipes on Plummelo and emailed them to my friends so they could save them into their recipe boxes as well. I put the recipes into My Plans and then into My Shopping List.

Here was the part where Plummelo really saved the day in this planning process: Once the recipes were in my shopping list, Plummelo adjusted the servings for me!

For 6 people, we needed everything times 6 (for a grand total of a lot of food). The recipe showed number of servings as 4, so I entered 24 (4 x 6), and the Plummelo shopping list automatically changed all the quantities for me (for example, 1 1/2 cups of ricotta became 9 cups of ricotta).

I then hit “Email Shopping List” on Plummelo and sent the combined list to my friends. We divvied up the shopping by section of the grocery store (which was also easy because the Plummelo shopping list is divided by category, such as Meat, Produce), and each went grocery shopping on our own schedule and planned to arrive with the assigned items.

One friend and I hit Costco for all the meat, and the others went on their respective treasure hunts. I was surprised at how little effort went into the shopping when we divided and conquered.

The day of, I packed it up the food and a few essentials (including my favorite knife), ready to take to the hosting friend’s house. We allowed 3 hours for our cooking adventure, with some time built in for girl talk and munching on freshly baked muffins.

We started out with the Chicken Marbella. One team of two trimmed the chicken thighs, another team minced garlic (of course, with the garlic gadget!), and another team measured spices, olives, capers, and prunes. In no time our chicken was marinating in the bowl, and we divided the massive quantity into 6 Ziploc freezer bags for each family to pull out on the designated night.

The routine went like this for the remaining recipes. Chopping and dicing, dividing and conquering (and washing some dishes in between). Meal prep is much more fun when it is organized in advance and shared with good friends. It’s also more fun digging into a huge bowl of ground turkey when wearing plastic gloves! We had a lot of laughs about food favorites and not-so-favorites, cooking blunders, and each other’s techniques, and fed each other bites of blueberry muffin while we worked. It didn’t seem like work at all.

It took us two and a half hours and $37.50 per family (that’s less than $10 per meal) to make 4 delicious meals that are ready for our loved ones to enjoy. Economies of scale definitely pay off!

Now we each have 4 new recipes in our repertoire and 4 new meals for the week. And after receiving a big thank you from more than one of the husbands, I know we have a hall pass for another girls’ afternoon out.

Try planning a cooking day with your friends. Let us know how it goes.

My husband and I have also turned over a new leaf and have adopted the “lean and green” dinner model. A couple of years ago my husband went on a diet that was nearly starvation with the exception of the lean and green dinner. The theory is that dinner should consist only of a reasonable portion of lean meat and a green vegetable (or two). While neither of us intends to diet, per se, the lean and green dinner is a component of healthy eating that we can adhere to (at least most of the time). Most dietitians seem to agree that limiting carbs is one way to stay slim.

While it sounds simple, sticking to lean and green could limit one’s meal options–look through your recipe collection and you will see. After all, if you take away dinner staples such as potato, rice, or pasta, what’s left? And how interesting can it be? So you have to get creative.

I have been on the hunt for some lean and green options that the whole family can enjoy, and have found some great ones that meet our criteria.

We recently tried Martha Stewart’s Lighter Sesame Chicken. Not only is it flavorful and feels substantial, but as an added bonus, the kids loved it too. The kids ate brown rice with theirs and buttered their broccoli. It was a meal that everyone really liked. This will become a regular in our lineup.

We also enjoyed Turkey and Roasted Red Pepper Meatloaf.

Lemon Chicken with Olives (see photo) also fits the bill, with the exception of lightly coating the chicken in flour, a step that could be omitted if you are being strict. It is simple to make, delicious, and moist, and the kids loved it.

Simply serve green salad–spinach leaves or romaine–with a light dressing (or just olive oil and vinegar) to accompany your lean meat recipe of choice. We also include salmon in our “lean” rotation.

I have a few secrets that help me get these dinners on the table. First, buy a large package of romaine hearts, or your preferred salad, at the beginning of the week to last through several days of meals. And to ensure I am always prepared for a lean and green dinner, I keep on hand a large bag of frozen chicken tenderloins (purchased from Costco). In a pinch, sautéing the chicken and some green beans (also usually in my freezer) in a little soy sauce for flavor makes an easy lean and green meal.

Share with us your favorite lean and green dinners. Have you tried any of these recipes?

Photo by Sarah Fullerton

Does this sound familiar?

See below for photo source.

Note: Extra points for making enough to last for lunch leftovers, or better yet, putting a portion in the freezer.

This week my plan involves one pre-cooked rotisserie chicken. (In previous stages of my cooking life, I used to pass these birds by, writing them off as shortcuts for people who don’t cook. Now I run to them: “Please come home with me, delectable little bird!”)

On Monday morning, I walk to Whole Foods with the baby. I get a golden-and-crispy-on-the-outside, juicy-and-tender-on-the-inside rotisserie chicken, among other things.

Upon returning home, I first inform my work-at-home husband that there is a killed and de-feathered animal in the house, because he insists on picking off all the meat I discard as unusable. I am a meat snob.

I pull out a sharpened sudoku (no, not one of those puzzles from the newspaper) and a clean cutting board. For me, there is something therapeutic about chopping chicken.

I divide the chicken into two bowls. I put one bowl of diced chicken in the fridge and get to work on the first recipe, my adaptation of Everyday Food’s Broccoli Calzones (this recipe doesn’t include chicken; what a shame). The recipe makes eight calzones, so I always serve two and freeze six for later. It’s the perfect pull-out-in-a-pinch dinner or lunch. Whenever I make them, I pre-cook them (the recipe says not to) so I can just zap them in the microwave (on the convection/crisper function) and serve with some jarred pasta sauce on the side. I buy the pizza dough pre-made, which saves a lot of time.

On Tuesday, I doctor up Real Simple’s Chicken Curry in a Hurry. The chicken is already set to go! I alter many recipes, including this one, by adding some veggies (mushrooms, green peppers). I always add vegetables to any casserole-type dish that doesn’t call for anything green. If I’m feeling bold and wishing I was someplace tropical, I throw in some cubed pineapple. I serve it over jasmine rice.

What are your tricks for using one primary ingredient twice?

Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevendepolo/ / CC BY 2.0

Sarah Fullerton is Plummelo’s editor. She enjoys cooking, knitting, skiing, and cycling. One of her favorite hobbies is sharing and talking about recipes and discovering shortcuts for healthy eating. She is especially enthusiastic about cooking for her baby girl. She can be contacted at sarah@plummelo.com.