Chicken - A Busy Mom's Best Friend

"As for those grapefruit and buttermilk diets, I'll take roast chicken and dumplings." ~Hattie McDaniel

The Matty in the Morning show on KISS 108 FM has been playing a song lately that a viewer created from the rants of Lisa (one of the DJs on the show). In the song she says, "I feel like a machine...and annoyed."

She talks about having to be everywhere at once ("This place, this place, this place, this place...") and the exhaustion that comes along with being a working mother (or a mother in general.) The song is really pretty amusing and has hit a nerve with listeners. The bottom line is that most women (myself included) feel like there are just not enough hours in the day.

I have recently put my "Taking Back Sundays" plan into effect. I spend some time on Sunday getting organized and ready for the week ahead. Prepping lunches, snacks and dinners for the week takes only a few hours and allows me to "grab and go" each morning while having more relaxing evenings with my boys.

The most important piece of the puzzle (aside from many Ziploc storage containers) is a chicken. I roast a large chicken every Sunday for dinner and from that one chicken I can create a few more dinners, lunch and stock for soups. Whatever is left over at the end of the week becomes a nice little meal for my furry pal, Max.

The spice mixes vary but I follow the same basic recipe each week: olive oil, salt and pepper. Sometimes I cut up lemons and stick those under the skin along with some fresh rosemary. Sometimes it is a garlic and paprika mix with a bit of red pepper flakes or basil and lemon & herb. You can roast it in the oven but we put ours on the rotisserie on our grill. Delicious every time.

From the leftovers this week I made chicken stock, chicken salad and a chicken pot pie. Max was grateful for the rest today. Half the chicken pot pie was left so that was put into a freezer bag and will be dinner one night next week. This week's chicken will create chicken tacos, chicken soup and chicken sandwiches.

I encourage my fellow "Machines" that are "Annoyed" to try the chicken idea. Let me know what you think!

Basic Taking Back Sunday Chicken

Ingredients:

• 6-8 lb roasting chicken (for convenience I like Perdue with the "popper")
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (or enough to coat)
• 1 tbsp Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

• Rinse the chicken with cold water and remove the bag of "parts" inside.
• Rub with salt and grind pepper on both sides.
• Place on rotisserie on grill (or in oven, breast side up.)
• Roast about 2 hrs or until popper pops.
• Eat for dinner.
• Carve the bird and put meat into large storage container in fridge for future meals.
• Put carcass into large pot to make soup or stock. 

Have a great week everybody!