What's for Dinner Wednesday? Perfect Roast Chicken

So my Wednesday dinner posts are lagging in popularity (according to my stats) so I might pull the plug on these (unless there is serious protest) I definitely will continue doing recipes and cooking posts, just a bit more randomly.  So here is one last go for WFDW.

Disclaimer: This is NOT a 30 minute meal...I made this Sunday actually at my hubby's request, but you could do this during the week easily by starting in the afternoon with the chicken.  It's not a lot of prep time, it's mostly in the oven time.

Scoff if you will at Martha Stewart, but the woman can cook and I haven't come across a recipe of her's that doesn't come out perfect everytime.  I was once terrified of cooking a whole chicken, but seriously, how can someone as obsessed with saving as I am really pass up .99/lb chickens!  So I looked up a recipe and did it and this comes out great everytime!  The instructions are lengthy, so go to the link and print it out, this is one you will want to keep anyways.  Here are the ingredients:

1 six lb roasting chicken

1 tablespoons unsalted butter

Salt and Pepper

2 onions, sliced

1 lemon

3 cloves of garlic, peeled

4 sprigs of fresh thyme

1 cup of chicken broth

I wish I were awesome and made my own stock...but let's not get crazy now...

 Onions lined up and ready to go!

Yes, you have to touch the raw bird...I was my hands like a million times during this whole process...

This makes a perfect bird every time with an amazing crispy skin.  So Good!

I made roasted potatoes and carrots with this.  I take my gorgeous potatoes from the Farmers Market :) and my carrots and I cut them into nice little chunks.  Then I get some salted water boiling with my potatoes (leave the carrots out) and let them boil for 5 minutes.  This makes them soft on the inside but crispy on the outside. I tried something different as a variation on another Martha recipe. 

Remove any blacked bits from the pans and pour some chicken broth in the pan. Combine the drippings and broth from the chicken with the potatoes and carrots  and roast in the oven at 400 for an hour. 

Mine didn't come out as crispy as I wanted, but I will use this method again, just go easy on the broth.  Just enough so the potatoes and carrots do not stick.  Either way they tasted INSANELY good and while I cannot vouch for how healthy it is...oh well.  I will post my healthier version of roasted potatoes in another post.  They go great with anything (yep, I do more than rice pilaf!)

Dinner turned out great! 

What's for Dinner Wednesday? - Baked Fish

I am so happy to be doing my Wednesday dinner posts again.  I'm doing a super simple dinner tonight as I haven't had much time since I got my computer back to research new recipes.

Tonight I am doing fish and I think this is an oft neglected meat because sometimes you just don't know what to do with it.  But, fish is full of excellent nutrients that aren't found in other meats and its lean and really good for you and your kids (note - consult your doctor if you are pregnant before consuming lots of fish).

When it comes to fish SIMPLE is best.  I am using Tilapia because it's a nice firm fish that doesn't fall apart on you easily and it's almost always BOGO at Winn Dixie in the frozen food section.  That's another nice thing about fish, it is just fine frozen.

Today I am using:

Frozen Tilapia

Panko breadcrumbs

1-2 eggs, beaten

Chef's Style Seasoning Salt

Box of rice

Fresh green beans

Start out with your thawed fish and season on both sides with the seasoning salt.  This will add flavor and not just saltiness.  Dip your fish in the egg, then the breadcrumbs and lay on a baking sheet.  Bake at 400 for 10-15 minutes, I bake until the edges just start to brown.  It is best to serve these right out of the oven.

Easy huh?  You can serve this with just about anything.  Add some applesauce for the kiddies (or the grownups) for an extra serving of fruit.  A baked potato or roasted potatoes would be awesome too.

It's not the most glamorous meal, but its really healthy, yummy and can take less than 30 minutes.

On a side note - just about everything for this meal was on sale, making this a SUPER cheap meal :)

Be sure to check back next week, I'll be trying out something new :)