Roasted Turkey Breast with Herbs

You don't have to wait for a holiday to enjoy Turkey. With turkey parts readily available, this is an ideal way to prepare juicy, tender and flavorful meal. Needless to say this recipe will have lots of leftovers to snack on.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 Turkey breast about 4 pounds bone-in, skin-on

4 Tbsp butter, softened

2 Tbsp fresh rosemary

1 Tbsp fresh thyme

1  tsp Ground black pepper

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Rosemary sprigs for garnish.

PREPARATION:

Wash the rosemary and thyme shaking off the excess water and finely chop. Add to the softened butter, stirring to make a smooth paste.

Wash the turkey breast and trim off any waste and excess fat. Pat dry with paper towels. Sprinkle underside of breasts with salt and pepper. Using your fingers, gently pull the skin apart from the breast meat to open up a cavity. Use a spoon to open up the cavity and spread the paste evenly over the meat under the skin. Replace the skin to cover the meat and rub the skin with olive oil and sprinkle liberally with pepper

Use a roasting pan fitted with a rack to allow circulation of heat. Place the breast on the rack skin side up and cover.

Move the oven rack to middle position to accommodate the roasting pan and cover then pre-heat to 450 degrees.

ROASTING:

Roast until thickest part of breast registers 165-170 degrees on instant-read thermometer, 60 to 75 minutes. Remove the cover after 30 min to brown the skin. Transfer the breast to cutting board, cover with a foil tent and let it rest 10 minutes before carving.

Go withes: Wrap a couple of sweat potatoes (yams) in aluminum foil, after washing and piercing the ends  potatoes with fork so the steam will escape. Pierce the sweet potatoes with fork so the steam will escape. Put them in the oven and bake about 35 minutes or until tender. Slit open and add a dollop of butter.

The pan drippings make excellent gravy if you are so inclined, but the turkey is tender and juicy so it really isn't necessary.
 

Note: the same recipe will work with a Chicken Brest, just use a whole breast and cook for about 30 to 40 min.

Herb Butter Roasted Chicken

Either a whole 4 to 5 lb roasting chicken, or as we did here works fine for this recipe; In reality, we each only ate half of the piece and had the rest the following day. It’s a very tasty and juicy way to prepare a chicken with minimum of fuss.

The butchers are happy to cut a whole chicken in half for you if you ask.

INGREDIENTS:

2 halves of roasting chicken

2 Tbsp. fresh parsley

1 tsp. garlic

1 tsp. fresh rosemary leaves

¼ cup butter

¼ tsp. pepper

PREPARATION:

Thoroughly wash the chicken, removing excess fat and any waist along with the giblet bag; pat dry. Secure wings to body of chicken

Peel and press the garlic through a press. Wash the rosemary shaking off the water, strip the leaves and chop finely. Wash the parsley shaking off the water, cut the leaves from the stems and chop finely. Soften the butter in a Microwave. Then in small bowl stir together butter, parsley, rosemary, pepper and garlic.

Rub chicken with butter mixture. Place on rack in roasting pan.

Preheat the oven to 350 deg.

ROASTING:

Roast uncovered for 2 to 2½ hr. or until fork tender. Serve up with a sprig of rosemary as a garnish

4 servings

Old Fashioned Chicken Soup

Well here’s the real deal, my grandmother used to make it like this and now my wife does. It is as it should be – chicken soup, not vegetable soup.

INGREDIENTS:

Chicken parts (or a 3 Lb. fryer)

3 Quarts of purified water

2 shallots

2 carrots

2 Tbsp dried parsley

1chicken bullion cube

6 to 7 oz. fine egg noodles

DIRECTIONS:

First off, this recipe uses the “Unusable” parts of whole chickens. Alternately a whole fryer can be cut up and used.

On this particular occasion, we purchased three 5 pound whole chickens; had two cut if half by the butcher. At home the two split chickens were cleaned of the back bone, associated fat and skin. This along with the necks from all three chickens was added to a 6 qt. pot. The whole chicken was also cleaned with the results added to the pot. Add three quarts of purified water to the pot and set it to simmer for two hours (Actually stewing the chicken parts).

Remove the chicken parts with a slotted spoon to a plate to cool. When cool enough to handle, remove the meat from the bones; Discarding the skin and bones.  Strain the broth, skim off excess fat and Return meat to the pot.

Peel the carrots, wash and dice. Peel the shallots, leaving them whole. Add the carrots, parsley flakes, bullion (crushed) and shallots to the pot and cover. Bring to a simmer and cook for 2 hour.

Meanwhile prepare the noodles according to directions. Do Not cook the noodles in the soup as it makes it cloudy and less appealing.

To serve: Put noodles in individual bowls and ladle the soup over them being sure to include the solids. A sprinkle of fresh parsley can be added as a finishing touch.

Chicken Pot Pie

Well here is an old standard, reinvented with frozen vegetables that are crispier then the canned “Veg-All”

INGREDIENTS:

2 Boneless Skinless chicken breasts

1/3 cup each frozen Carrots, Corn, String Beans and Peas

2 ea 10.75 oz can condense cream of chicken soup (Healthy Request 50% less Sodium)

1/3 cup milk

Black pepper to taste

Dash of thyme 

2/3 cup Original Bisquick mix

PREPARATION:

Measure out the vegetables and let though. Wash the chicken, put it in a pot and simmer for about ½ hour ‘till done. Remove, let cool somewhat and cut into bite size chunks.

Per heat your oven to 400 F.

Mix vegetables, chicken and soup in un-greased glass pie plate, 10 inch.

Mix the Bisquick and milk with fork until blended. Then pour over chicken mixture and spread evenly.

BAKING:

While baking, it will boil over, so put the plate on a cookie sheet or such.

Bake 35-40 minutes or until golden brown.

4 servings

Adaptation of a recipe By George Ross

Delicious Turkey legs – and easy to make

Roasted Turkey legs, sweet 'taters 'n beans

Take two legs wash them, dry and put them in a roasting pan. Sprinkle with pepper and herbs. Add a cup of chicken broth and cover. Take two washed sweet potatoes, poke a hole in one end and wrap in foil. Put both in a 350 deg oven for about 2 hours. Uncover the legs after an hour to brown.
About 15 minutes before they are done, steam some frozen green (French cut) beans.

Voile! There you have a hearty meal with minimum fuss.