Rosemary chicken

For this meal, I decided on making a perfect chicken in oven. The meal includes parted chicken with bone, a ginger dressing and a nectarine salad. I have had my issues with the chicken in oven style meals. It is a dead sin if the skin is not crisp, and the meat must not be dry, so I had my doubts when I started out. I have seen a lot of cooking programs on tv, and many times they stuff some flavored butter underneath the skin, and it always turns out great, so this was my plan, though upfront I could not imagine that you could just lift off the skin. This just illustrates how little experimental I have been in a kitchen. It turned out to be very easy.

In the fridge I had some leftover ginger, and some leftover skyr and creme fraiche from the shrimp taco meal, so I came up with the idea of making a ginger dressing - maybe it would work with chicken, maybe it would not.

For a side dish, I wanted to make a salad, but not a regular salad consisting of iceberg, tomato, cucumber and maybe some feta cheese, if I really wanted to show off. Okay, so I had these nectarines and thought why not make a salad with it - this I definitely had  not made before. But then.... I also thought, why not combine it with some grilled squash and goat cheese. Here I have to say, when tasting the salad, I firstly did not like the combination at all, then I was like - hmm, maybe this is okay, it tastes strange, but maybe that is good, and then finally, I was like - no, this is not a perfect combination. Actually I would not recommend it, although the colors are nice :) I would though recommend a salad based on nectarine, but leave out the squash, and tone down the cheese (goat was way to strong in flavor). Maybe a really tasty buffalo mozzarella would work. It is more discrete in flavor, and if you do not like the combination, eat the mozzarella by itself - I love buffalo mozzarella - yummy.

Dressing: Skyr, creme fraiche, lime, ginger, garlic

Butter stuff for the chicken: salted butter, lime zest, rosemary

The chicken before cooking. The butter is spread out between skin and meat

Salad: Nectarine, baby leafs, squash, goat cheese - do not go there, use only the nectarine and salad

The final result

The chicken was cooked for 40 minutes on regular oven (200 degrees C) and 5 minutes on grill. Meanwhile I made the salad. The dressing, I prepared first, so it could get tasty in the fridge for an hour or so. To my great joy, the chicken was perfect. My first bite was very hot and very juicy and luckily the skin was crispy - although there was not enough of it. I love skin, when crispy, otherwise, I take it off.

So I already stated the the combination of salad ingredients did not work well, but a combination that did work well was the ginger dressing with the hot, crispy chicken. This was good, and since I am still home alone, there is enough for lunch tomorrow. A good day for the kitchen, I would say.

RECIPE
Dressing:
A scoop of creme fraiche
A scoop of skyr
1 clove of garlic - pressed
2 cubic cm of ginger - grated
1/2 lime

Grate the ginger and get everything into the dressing base (skyr and creme fraiche). Mix with a clove of garlic and juice from half a lime.

Salad:
2 nectarines
1/2 squash
4 cm goat cheese
A handful baby leaves

Chop nectarines, grill the squash, chop the cheese. Put on a plate. I have experienced, that salad is actually much more pretty when served on a dish rather than in a bowl. It is also more easy to get a little of everything on your plate. But when cooking for many people, a bowl is more appropriate.

Chicken (for two people):
2 chicken upper thighs
3 chicken lower thighs
40g butter
A bunch of rosemary
Lime zest

Mix together butter, chopped rosemary and lime zest from half a lime. Today I learned, that if you have not had the butter out to warm up, you can actually grate it, and then it is easy to mix with other stuff. Squeeze the flavored butter underneath the skin and massage it about. Also put some on the outside of the skin. Cook the chicken for 40 minutes on 200 degrees Celsius, and finish off with 5 minutes on grill, to make the skin crispy - if it is not already so.

I used a thermometer to measure that the chicken was cooked properly. On the packaging, it actually said Danish chicken - Salmonella free (I love when this is the case, it makes me more confident when cooking). I assume, that even though the chicken is salmonella free, it could have other stuff in it, so it still should be cooked through.