Endless Chickens

I know I bitched about this six chicken roast melee, but I am still obsessed on it. Am I procrastinating on my novel? maybe.

There were lots of leftovers. Six chickens is too many for a buffet party, even one with fifty guests. There was plenty of other food, and I arrived late, so only about half the chicken got eaten. I have leftovers, including the carcasses and wings and such. I also saved the pan juices, a good four cups worth of spicy chicken essence.

When reheating leftover chicken, I boil it for a good five minutes in a combination of water and pan juices, to make sure everything is totally cooked, and to kill any bugs that might have decided to grow whilst the chicken sat on the buffet table at the party. So far no side effects. The leftovers have filled out two suppers for us quite nicely.

Last night I was faced with about four carcasses - backs and breast bones with tiny bits of meat and gelee clinging to them. My inner chef could not face just throwing that stuff out. I put the carcasses in the pressure cooker with a chopped onion, two ribs of chopped celery, and water; cooked it under pressure for 30 minutes and let sit for an hour (pressure cooker method for chicken stock). This yielded a spicy chicken broth which I strained and put in the fridge.

I have a new friend from my son's school who is Yemeni; she's always feeding us lovely suppers when we visit after school. From her I got the idea to cook lentils in the broth; then add the spiced chicken leftovers in the freezer and cook thoroughly. I may freeze the broth and do this when I have the Yemeni family over for lunch at Christmas time.

I'll consult with my Yemeni friend on spices but I'm pretty sure she would recommend paprika, cinnamon, cumin and maybe ginger. She serves these lentil stews with chicken parts that are delicious and warming. My kids love her food. (In fact my older son was disappointed that we only stayed for tea and honey-glazed flatbread yesterday; he wanted to know where was his supper?)

Comments

[Maloof]

I tried your Spiced Melee recipe for my Christmas Eve turkey. I marinaded the 20 lb turkey overnight (just slathered it with the marinade) and it came out great! I made stock with the leftover carcass and then soup and I have to say it was the best turkey soup I've ever made!

I'm having a neighborhood New Years Eve party and plan on trying the marinade on cornish game hens. They'll require less cooking time.

I came upon your blog in July during the Israeli/Lebanon war and have really enjoyed all of your posts. Just wanted to say thanks. I look forward to reading daily.

[Leila]

Hey Maloof, thanks for dropping by. I'm delighted you tried the recipes. THe original spiced chicken recipe is from Gourmet magazine, May 1995, and if you go to Epicurious.com and search on "Spiced Poussins" you'll find it. I can't take credit for inventing it. But I seem to be the only one around who promotes it, so that means something.

Sahtain, and welcome to my blog.

[Maloof]

The chickens were a huge success! I did cut them in half before I marinaded them. It cut down the cooking time. The meat fell off the bone and everyone raved about them.