I invited Vater und Mutter over for Xmas dinner, because no one was at home when I called on Xmas eve to say "come over for Xmas eve dinner". So I ended up slaving over a hot stove one day before going back to work the next day. Bad idea #1.
Tried to take a shortcut. Asked Mutter to help me check how much the delicatessen was selling roast chicken so that I only needed to cook fries, make a salad, brussel sprouts and soup. Mutter reported that the chickens were going at 2X their usual prices. So she said "buy your own chicken and cook it." Bad idea #2.
Standing at the supermarket eyeing the chickens balefully. Should I get the usual spring chickens (which I am used to making) or a giant bird? Chose the big bird. Bad idea #3.
Bloody chicken was a pain to roast. It took more than 1 hour to roast, not including the time to marinate and insert garlic and ginger slices under the skin. I stuffed it with ginger, garlic, onion and apples, and slathered the skin with butter, sesame seed oil (my god, I just realized I dumped two types of oil on that bird), soya sauce and mirin. I finally blanketed the birdie with bacon slices.
In the end, it was still 90% cooked so had to zap it in the microwave again. But it was moist and flavorful. Thanks to my basting the bird and and flipping it over half way through.
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| Other than sushi, everything else was made by me :D |
