Thankful Thursday-Simple Roasted Chicken

I am thankful for the simple roasted chicken we had for supper last night.  It was our first chicken from the pasture raised chickens we butchered on Saturday.

When cooking if I want to taste the "star of the show" I prefer to use less in seasoning.  So for roasting this chicken we used just a few ingredients.  We were all anxious to see if the taste would be different than our usual nasty grocery store chicken. 

Brant and Matthew without a doubt thought it tasted different.  I thought the breast tasted different.  Ryan just ate.  Funny thing was I am usually freaked out by chickens from the store.  They are nasty, slimy and have a weird gross smell.  As I took the chicken out yesterday afternoon to wash it I did not bat an eye at handling it.  Maybe because I knew where it came from, what it had been eating it's whole life and because I had just handled it on Saturday.  Also it did not stink and did not have that disgusting sliminess factory raised chickens usually do. 

Even if there were not a big difference in taste, we all agreed that because of the chicken's life, the way it was raised and what it ate, it is all around better for us.

Ingredients: 
1 (5 pound or smaller ) Roasting Chicken
salt (eyeball)
pepper (eyeball)
1 lemon quartered (surprisingly this gave off a strong taste.  Will omit next time)
3-4 garlic cloves
1 onion quartered
3-4 sprigs of thyme
2 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425.
Allow the chicken to get to room temp for about 30 minutes.
Remove inside giblets and such. Rinse the bird under cold water.  Pat dry with a paper towel. sprinkle the inside of the cavity with salt and pepper.  Stuff the cavity with the lemon, garlic, onion, and thyme.  Rub the bird all over with butter.  Then season with salt and pepper.  Using kitchen twine tie the legs together and tuck the wings under.  Or cut small slit in the excess skin and tuck legs in the slit.  Place the chicken in the pan and roast for 1 1/2 hours or until golden and crispy and the juices run clear.  You can use a meat thermometer and check for doneness it should read 160.  Let the bird rest for about 15 minutes before you carve it.

Serve with homemade mashed potatoes of course!  And gravy made from the drippings of the chicken.  And go ahead and stem some broccoli.....easiest recipe ever for broccoli-add just about an inch and half of water to a medium size pot.  Add 1 teaspoon of sugar (yes, sugar); bring to a boil.  Toss in cut up broccoli trees (the boys call them little trees when they are cut up), place lid on pot and let steam for 8 minutes.  DONE!  And super delicious.

I just gave you a whole meal idea.  Enjoy! 

I am off to find more chicken recipes.  You'll be seeing lots of them here.  Do you have a favorite chicken recipe?  Leave me a comment.  Share a link.  If you have a blogged about it let me know, I'll share it here.

And come back tomorrow for FUN Friday/FUN Weekend.  I 'll give a recipe and craft for this up coming Memorial Day Weekend.

I Survived Butcher Day!

Well I did it.  I survived our first butcher day! 

I didn't throw up, didn't freak out and actually thought it was a great learning experience. 

If you missed my post on Friday I'll quickly tell you that Saturday was butcher day.  Our family along with Brant's brother's family butchered 47 pastured raised chickens. 

I'll spare you with all the details, but if you are the least bit interested you can go HERE to read about "Our First Butcher Day". Warning:  there are some graphic pictures.

I know a few of you who are waiting with baited breath to find out the role I played on butcher day.  And contrary to what some may have thought I did do some work.  I did take pictures.  I did cut feet and tails off.  And did eventually pull heads off.  I did handle dead chickens.  I helped in the final cleaning of the dead chickens.  And I did learn more than I could have ever imagined!

What I did not do. I did not do as much as some on butcher day. I did not kill chickens (thank you to my amazing husband and his brother for taking that on).  And I had no part of eviscerating (gutting) the chickens.  I did from time to time have to pull parts of the insides out that were forgotten when I did the final cleaning, but that was as close as I got.  Speaking of gutting the chickens..........Kudos to my SIL who got right there in the action of eviscerating.  Maybe next batch I'll be as brave as you.

My thoughts on this day..........it was a long work day.  But truly satisfying when at the end we saw the fruits of our labor.  Our freezers are now stocked with fresh pasture raised chickens.  Chickens that were fed and cared for in a manner that we are not ashamed of. 

More thoughts on butcher day.....the chicken plucker was by far the most fascinating part of the day.  If you have never heard or seen one that is reason alone to go to the link above to read about "Our First Butcher Day".  A video is in that post.

Right now I am gathering chicken recipes.  And can't wait to have a lovely roasted chicken this week. 

Happy Monday to you.

FUN Weekend?

Yes, I am questioning myself if this will be a FUN weekend.  Today will be, but tomorrow I am not so sure. 

But let's take it one day at a time.

Today will be a delightful morning for sure.  This little old house is getting a new stove!  As a stay at home mom who spends a lot of time in the kitchen I am beyond excited.  Our current stove is a 70s model that came with the house.  Over the past seven months she, the stove, has slowly been telling me she is tired.  Some days working fine and other days putting her foot down to even do the smallest task.  After several "in house examinations" by stove/oven doctors AKA appliance specialists it has been determined she is too old to continue this kind of work.  And just last night she had the courage to tell me, "no more, I'm done".   Lucky for me I was not right in the middle of cooking something.  But I was seconds away from putting something in the oven.  No sweat.  We'll move on to a newer and better machine and give this old gal a break.

And tonight me and my new kitchen friend will start our new life together at a high heat.  It's PIZZA NIGHT!!!!!

Now on to tomorrow. Tomorrow is a day we have been waiting for since the beginning of March.  Tomorrow is butcher day.  Tomorrow our family along with Brant's family will kill and process 47 (I think) chickens.  At the end of the day our freezers will be full of chickens that were pasture raised. 

BUT, my thoughts are blurry this morning.  I am thinking about tomorrow and what is to come....how will I react to all the killing of the chickens, what will the boys think, will blood be everywhere,  what will my role be,  will it all go fast, will we be working until dark (not likely), etc.  And so many other thoughts.  And then I keep thinking about how my husband put it in the first blog post on The Poultry Record .


Factory farmed broiler chickens never see the light of day. They are raised in cramped, overcrowded broiler houses with thousands of other birds. Selectively bred and genetically altered, their thighs and breasts grow so large and heavy that their bones cannot support their weight (have you ever noticed how big the individual breasts are in a package of chicken breasts at the grocery store?). Their beaks and toes are also cut off and they usually spend their short, miserable lives in the darkness to prevent fighting among the birds.

Several years ago, our family made a deliberate effort to start thinking about the food we eat: how it’s grown, where it comes from. And in the case of animals that we eat, the manner in which they are raised.

We are two families, who by the grace of God have been given the skills, abilities and desire to provide for ourselves some of the food we eat, and in doing so, to be less reliant upon the factory providers of the Frankenstein food products that have inundated our grocery store shelves.


And all that gives me strength for tomorrow and a little hope that it will be OK.   These chickens have been raised in the most ethical, honorable and humane way possible.  And we are extremely blessed to still have so many! 

So what part will I play tomorrow???  I sure as heck am not going to kill the birds.  The chicken plucker sounds like a fun job.  Besides the boys would love to help me with that. Google chicken plucker if you have no idea what I am talking about. Gutting the chickens may be pretty interesting if I don't mess up and break the bile duct!  Or maybe I could cut the feet off.  Who knows?!  I'll be back Monday to share.

Whatever it is I will be doing you can bet it will be a day I'll never forget!  And a day full of learning....talk about the ultimate homeschooling class!  Whatever I am doing I sure hope it is a FUN day. 

So what's on your agenda for this weekend?  Whatever you do get outside and have some FUN! 

May Happenings

Well I had intended on showing you the boys' reverse tie dye shirts today, but it was an EPIC FAIL!!  Let's just say hunter green does not reverse a pretty color and dark oatmeal does not reverse AT ALL! Two tries in bleach!  I'll stick to good old fashioned tie dye shirts for the boys.  I'll share those later on in May.

It's MAY!!!!! 

Quite a few things going on this month---Mother's Day, we'll finish up school (oh yes we will!!!!), butcher day and Memorial Day.  And much more FUN to come!

For those of you wondering, what is butcher day? Butcher day is when we will slaughter chickens and divide them out to stock our freezers!  YUM!!! 


Our family and Brant's brother's family are raising pastured poultry.  Well, they are actually doing all the hard work of raising them since the chickens are on their farm.  We simply share the cost, visit to watch the chickens grow, do what we can to help and will have the pleasure of sharing butcher day with them as well.  Brant and his brother have built and designed everything needed throughout this process and for butcher day. 

You can read more about this adventure at The Poultry Record .

The picture below shows the growth from chick to big chicken.  And they still have until the end of the month to GROW!  We are going to have some nice size chickens to EAT! 

It has been amazing for me to watch this cycle of growth.  Although we do indeed wish we could have had more "hands on" raising of the chickens it has been a blessing to watch it all regardless. 

Look how they grew!!!

I love a new month.  I love new beginnings.  I love knowing it is a season of lots of changes coming.  And I love making plans for all these things ahead.

How is your May looking?  Happy first day of May.