In Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, Nosrat aruges for buying whole chickens rather than buying parts. You can save the spine and other parts for stock and cut the pieces yourself. It's cheaper and it's my own anecdotal feel, but it seems like the whole chickens that we get from Farmers To You are fresher.
I've cooked a whole chicken every week for the last month or so. This week, Farmers To You didn't have whole chicken so I ordered a Giannone chicken from Savenor's. It seemed like it was frozen at one point (some parts were still frozen). Are all / most chickens frozen? The beef kebabs yesterday from Farmers To You were partially frozen too. I wonder what the logic is to sell frozen meats thawed. Is it marketing? Is it so people can prepare it without thawing? Is it that they are frozen in some way that is less damaging than a home fridge? Is it lower temperature. Hmmm.
The Giannone chicken from Savenor's is also smaller - 3 lb vs the 5.5 lb chickens that I'd been getting from Farmers To You. I spatchcockedOven Roasted Spatchcocked Chicken
Whole Chicken
Salt & Pepper
Light Olive Oil
Butter
it yesterday, salt and peppered it and stuck it in the fridge. I plan to try putting a weight (second cast iron pan) on top of the chicken when I sear it this time to see how it goes. (I heard about it and then found this "Spatchcocked Chicken Under A Brick" recipe.) I'll try it at 450ºF per this recipe.
I also took the spine and wing tips from the Giannone chicken, added it to the celery, parsley and left over chicken parts in the freezer along with three points of chicken bones from Savenor's and the rest of the recipe for Nosrat's chicken stock recipe and simmered it for 6 hours yesterday. It's currently chilling in the wine cellar.
I'm going to use the stock to make Risotto-PrimaveraRisotto Primavera
For the rice:
5 to 6 cups chicken broth
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small minced onion
1 ½ cups arborio rice
3 tbsp butter at room temp
⅔ cup freshly grated Parmesan
Salt & pepper to taste
For the vegetables to be added half way through the rice cooking time:
¼ cup olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 cup thinly sliced shiitake mushroom caps
1 tbsp finely chopped onion
2 small zucchini, cut into ¼ inch dice
6 asparagus cut in ½ inch segments
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
2 medium plum tomatoes, diced
... as the side dish tonight.
The risotto turned out nice. I used porcini instead of shiitake which turned the whole thing a bit brown, but otherwise it was great.
The chicken was good, but my Chugod thermometers got the temperature wrong (I don't think it was user error) but I used the Javelin Pro and used it to get it to the right temperature. I use the Chugod because it can stay connected when the food is in the oven and it has a Bluetooth mode that allows me to monitor it on my phone. However, the range doesn't allow me to use it outside, in my office or on the 3 fl nursery and it complains loudly both at the device and on my phone when it gets disconnected... which is annoying. It is hard to figure out exactly where to measure on a spatchcocked chicken since there is no "middle" of the chicken, but I think near the bone seemed best. I need to get better at placing the thermometer maybe.