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Sunday, March 10, 2013

Which Came First?

The chicken? ...



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           Or the Eggs?...

CHiCKEN STUFFED WiTH 
HERBS & EGGS



I have been thinking about making this for awhile! I just think it is funny to have eggs inside a chicken. Ha Ha!


I have become one of those people who has to decide whether to buy medicine or food.* I mentioned this to the pharmacist, when I went to the store to pick up my $10 thyroid medicine. I had $11.25 to last until next payday. She "accidentally" gave me $1 change when I handed her two five dollar bills. So then I had $2.25 to spend on food this week. Chickens were on sale for 88 cents a pound, and I found a little one for exactly $2.24. Yay!

I picked some herbs growing in my garden - chives, celery, thyme, sage, marjoram, bay leaf. There is a lot of the wild weed "winter cress" sprouting up everywhere now, so I gathered some of that. I even found a couple of carrots that had overwintered in the garden. I had some dried shallots from last summer's garden.

I cleaned and dried the chicken. Did you know, the FDA now says you aren't supposed to wash a chicken? Just pat it dry with towel. I used a cloth towel. 
{From the FDA Site: Do not rinse raw meat and poultry before cooking. "Washing these foods makes it more likely for bacteria to spread to areas around the sink and countertops,"  http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm092815.htm}

I've been pondering how to do an egg-stuffed chicken for awhile. Apparently there are some Russian and Middle Eastern dishes with whole eggs incorporated into chicken stuffing. And I saw a drool-inducing Indian recipe for chicken with masala spiced scrambled eggs and rice. 

But I wanted whole eggs inside and I've been thinking about the best way to do it. I decided that if I use peeled hardboiled eggs they would probably overcook inside the roasting chicken, and I REALLY dislike overcooked hard boiled eggs (dry pale yolks with that green rim - Ugh!)  I decided to put unpeeled eggs inside. I wasn't sure if raw unpeeled eggs would cook all the way inside the chicken, so I precooked them for 3 minutes first. I added the carrots (peeled) and shallots (whole unpeeled) to the simmering eggs, with a pinch of turmeric , just to get everything started a little. 

I stuffed the hot eggs with the herbs and veggies (and a little salt) into the cavity of the  chicken and closed it up with toothpicks. I sprinkled some coarse salt on the outside.

I had preheated the oven to 425° and put the in Bird-&-Eggs. I immediately turned the heat down to 350°, and roasted for about 40 minutes. The FDA has dropped the recommended safe temperatures for all cooked poultry to 165°F (it used to be higher, and that makes for dry, unappealing chicken).

I took it out of the oven and let it sit for 15 minutes. I turned it upside down for this part, so the juices would run into the breast.) If I'd had a thermometer, I'm sure it would have read a perfect 165°.

Then I opened that birdie up! 


 


 
The egg was cooked perfectly!
 
And the breast meat was juicy & moist.


* My standard of living has fallen steadily in recent years, having been laid off from jobs five times in recent years. After the last layoff at the end of 2009 I lived through 2 years of unemployment. I looked and looked and looked for work and I've finally found a job that pays a little over minimum wage (with a 2 hour commute each way).  But really, I am lucky. I am resourceful and have made wonderful meals with my garden and stuff I have in my cupboards. There are lots of people like me, trying to appear the same as usual, but living with much less.

Not to mention that there are huge numbers of people in this world who are truly hungry. "Almost half the world — over three billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day."
http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats

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