Winner Winner! Chicken Dinner and Garden Journal June 25th
Channel: Mailer's Landing
Date: 2021-06-28

Dinnertime, a Story in Three Acts (Only Looks Like a Musical In Titles) -
Act I - Rinse It Stuff It Paint It Dust It hi-hO!
Act II - GARDEN BREAK: Firsts, and Cabbage Looper Decoy Update
Act III - Carve It Up! Carve It Up! (!tREaT teh CaT!) Carve it Up!

Growing, building and cooking in New England, zone 6b

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_Roast Chicken_
~2Tbsp (or margarine, or a neutral oil like canola), melted
1 3-4lb roasting chicken
2 nice handfuls of fresh rosemary
1 lemon, halved
~2Tbsp cornstarch 1:2 salt mixture*
Pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 400𝆩 Melt butter on low in a small pan. While that’s happening, rinse** and pat dry your chicken. Reserve neck.
2. Set chicken into a casserole dish, breast end resting upon the neck.

NOTE: I did the next bit in a different order in the video, but the following order is seriously the least slippery way to put things together. Hi-5 o/

3. Place half of the lemon into the chicken, small end pointing in, followed by half the rosemary, and the other lemon half, also with the small side pointing in. Divide the remaining rosemary into two bundles, and place one under each leg and wing to lift them off the casserole dish. 
4. Brush chicken with melted butter. Dust with cornstarch-salt mixture, making sure to get in all the tricky spots. If your dusting is uneven, don’t be afraid to shake things around or to gently get in there with your fingers. Also, it doesn’t have to be perfect - a lot of this is going to slide around in the oven once the butter melts again, so yeh, don’t stress it.
5. Roast, uncovered on the middle rack, for about an hour, checking at 50 minutes (especially if your bird is on the smaller side). When the breast meat reaches a temp of 160𝆩 and the thickest part of the thigh reaches 165𝆩 remove from oven. Rest 15 minutes before carving.

_Baked Sweet Potatoes_
3-5 sweet potatoes
Aluminum foil
Optional: butter, pepper, nutmeg 

1. Preheat oven to 400𝆩, Scrub sweet potatoes, pierce all over 5-10 times with a knife or fork. Wrap in aluminum foil.
2. Place in oven on middle rack, bake ~45 minutes, until soft when squeezed.
3. Serve with any or all of the following: butter, pepper, nutmeg 

* More or less: ½ Tbsp cornstarch mixed with 1Tbsp kosher salt
** Optional! Your kitchen, your rules ~.o