Money Saving Tip: How to Cut A Chicken

In this day and age, who doesn't want to save a little dough when you're at the check out counter at your local grocery store? With the popular rise of the reality show Extreme Couponing, I think American's, myself included, are looking for creative ways to save some money. Although couponing, like they do on the show, is not my forte there are some time efficient, practical things we can do to save ourselves some money. 

One of the easiest things, which until recently I didn't think was very easy, is to cut up your own chicken. The fact is, buying whole fryers is much more economical then buying chicken that has been pre-cut and pre-packaged in the pieces we need. Plus, you can use the remaining parts of the chicken to make your own chicken stock at home, another pricey item that is often on most grocery lists. With some tips from my mom and a little online research I felt ready to take on the challenge. It literally took me less than 10 minutes to do and I guarantee you, you will use this skill over and over again. Fear chicken no more!

8 Pieces

Begin by prepping your workspace, lay a piece of parchment paper over your butcher's block for easy clean up (I got that tip from Martha).

Next, you will need the proper tools, a sharp knife that you are comfortable with (I used my 7" Santoku, and sharp kitchen shears.

Hello chicken! Place the chicken on your work surface, use paper towels to pat the chicken dry if it is wet.

Flip the chicken over and grab the tail bone, using your kitchen shears cut alongside of the chicken's back bone all the way up.

Now, use the kitchen shears and move to the other side, cut along the back bone on the opposite side. The goal is to remove the backbone in one long piece.

Ta-Dah! Discard this piece, or place in a ziploc and freeze to use for stock preparation later.

Now that the back bone is gone, lay your chicken flat. Find the breast bone and cut the chicken into two halves right down the breast bone. You can use your knife or shears for this step, I find a knife much easier for getting through the breast bone.

Now you have 2 1/2 chicken portions. Yay!

Working with one half of the chicken, the next step is to remove the appendages.

Sorry about the blurry shot, well actually, Jim is sorry about it. Find the connection where the thigh is connected to the body and cut just a little bit above that. If done correctly, the chicken thigh and leg should cut away easily in one piece and without a fight. 

Lift up the wing flap and cut right where the wing is attached to the body. Again, the wing should come off pretty easily, if you're having trouble, feel around the flap and breast pieces until you find an area near the connection that seems easy to cut through. There will be a bit of  a "discovery" your first time around.

Repeat with the other 1/2 chicken.

You now have six pieces, 2 breast pieces, 2 wings, and 2 thighs with legs attached.

To turn your six pieces of chicken into eight, separate the thighs and legs. Cut right above the socket where the leg is attached. You may need to break the socket by bending the leg piece until you hear it crack for easier cutting. Repeat with the other piece.

Ta-Dah!

Now you have eight pieces of chicken that you can cook a number of ways. Such an easy money saving tip! Here are some recipes you might like to try with your newly butchered chicken: Tandoori Chicken and Buttermilk Fried Chicken. Happy saving!

Italian Sausage & Peppers

 

Sausage and peppers, a classic Italian staple, and one of my favorite dishes. Many of you who live in and around the Sacramento area might have heard of or even been to Paesanos Italian Restaurant, at the least you have probably driven by it. Paesanos has a special place in my heart since Jim and I had our first official date in one, and that said, from time to time we like to go into one to reminisce. My inspiration for this dish came from their menu item "New School Sausage & Peppers". I've ordered that dish a time or two before and I just love it, I have to admit I have no idea what they put in theirs besides what I can taste. Luckily the last time I had the dish I really let my taste buds do the work and they gave me a good flavor and ingredient base for my own version, the results were delicious! The perfect rustic meal for a doomy, gloomy day, like today.

Serves 6

A look at some of the ingredients.

- 1 lb. Hot Italian Chicken Sausage

- 1 package Mezzi Rigatoni (cooked & drained)

- 2 large red bell peppers (sliced)

- 1/2 large onion (sliced)

- 1/2 cup Italian Parsely (chopped)

- 4 large garlic cloves (chopped)

- 3 tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

- 8 oz. can of Tomato Sauce

- 14 oz. can of Italian Style Stewed Tomatoes

- 1 pinch of sugar

- 1 tbsp. Red pepper flakes

- 1/2 cup white wine 

- Salt & Pepper (to taste)

- Freshly grated Parmesan Cheese (for topping)

Start by prepping the water for the pasta. While you wait for the water to boil, start slicing the onions and peppers.

Meanwhile in a large pan heat the olive oil on medium/high heat.
I love this olive oil, it's so yummy!

When the oil is hot add in the onions, red pepper flakes and a sprinkle of salt & pepper. Cook until onions are soft.

Add in the garlic and almost all of the chopped parsley. Stir ingredients together and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

Meanwhile if the pasta water is ready, add in the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain and set aside the pasta for later use. 

Add in the peppers, stir the ingredients and cook until the peppers barely begin to wilt.

Add in the chicken sausage and using a wooden spoon break it up into small, but chunky, pieces.

Yummy! Cook for five minutes stirring as often as needed.

Add in the stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce and wine. Bring the sauce to a boil then turn heat to medium/low and cook for about 10-15 minutes. You want the wine to burn off a bit, why wine? Because that's they way Clemenza did it, and you don't mess with Clemenza.

Taste the sauce, add salt and pepper as needed. Then add in the cooked pasta and toss well with sauce and ingredients.

Top with the remaining parsley. The sauce should be thick and should cling to all the ridges or "rigas" of the rigatoni. Remove from heat and serve, top with freshly grated Parmesan cheese if desired.

Sweet & Spicy Eggplant & Tofu

Eggplant, beautiful, purple, complex and flavorful. That is exactly what I thought when I spied the purple beauties as I perused the produce section of my local grocery store. Usually the selection local markets carry, leave something to be desired, but today, it was different. I quickly bagged up my treasures and headed home to recreate a dish I love, spicy eggplant with tofu. I describe my dish as sweet because that's exactly what the eggplant was, it was perfect. This meal takes about 45 minutes to prep and cook, due to the amount of time it takes for the eggplant to breakdown. But if you want to speed it up cut your eggplant into smaller pieces, easy peasy, lemon squeezy. Enjoy!

Serves 4

Didn't I tell you they were gorgeous? just look at them! I have never loved eggplant as I did that day.

- 1 large eggplant (sliced into 1 inch pieces)

- 1 package extra firm tofu (cut into 1 inch pieces)

- 2 tomatoes (cut into eighths)

- 1/2 a large onion (sliced)

- 4 cloves of garlic (crushed)

- 1/2 tsp. fresh ginger (minced)

- 1/4 cup soy sauce

- 1 tbsp. garlic chili paste

- 1 tsp. Hoisin sauce

- 1 cup & 2 tbsp. of vegetable oil (divided)

- Fresh Scallions (for garnish)

Begin by placing 1 cup of vegetable oil in a large frying pan or wok and heat the oil on medium/high heat. While the oil warms up start slicing your tofu into 1 inch squares, or if your like me 1 1/2 inch rectangles.

Gently add your tofu to the heated oil and fry until they turn golden brown. Remove tofu and place on a dish lined with paper towels to help drain excess oil. Set tofu aside until needed.

While your tofu fries begin prepping the remaining ingredients...

Slice the onions and prepare the garlic and ginger.

Then cut your tomatoes into eighths.

Next slice up the eggplant, you can choose whether or not you want to peel the eggplant. I like little slivers of purple in my food, I think they make this dish pretty so I only half peeled the eggplant. Place the cut eggplant in a bowl filled with water to keep the eggplant from browning.

I should have taken a photo here but I didn't so here's what I did next. Heat the remaining oil in a wok, then add the onions, garlic & ginger and cook until onions are soft. next, add the hoisin, hot garlic paste, soy sauce and tomatoes. Stir the ingredients together and let the tomatoes cook down for about five minutes. Then...

Add in the eggplant and stir all ingredients together to combine.

Ta-Dah! Cook on medium/low heat for 10-15 minutes until eggplant has broken down. Hint: To help this process along you can cover the pan.

Like so.

Add in the browned tofu and combine all ingredients together well. Cook for another 3-5 minutes to let the tofu soak up all the flavors. Add in sliced scallions for garnish and flavor if desired. Remove from heat and serve over white rice.

What's Cooking in the Garden?

I haven't blogged in about a week and I am starting to feel really bad about it. Although I have been cooking, I put in almost 50 hours at work last week, which included two back to back evenings. Safe to say I have been pressed for time, and therefore my poor blog has suffered. A couple exciting things did happen to me during the last week, I crashed my first wedding (long story) and despite the odd rain in May, my garden has really taken off! Here's a look at the beautiful blooms I have been enjoying over the last couple of weeks.

Can you guess what these are? If you think you know, please take a guess in the comment section. These sunburst hot pink beauties are bursting with color and usually bloom for about one month. They're pretty low maintenance and beautiful to behold.

I've had this popular bloom in my garden for two years now and I was astonished at how huge the leaves grew to this year. Can you see my entire hand behind this monstrosity? Many of you should be able to tell exactly what these are just by glancing at the leaf.

Beautiful hydrangeas! I have two white plants and one pink plant. My white hydrangeas are covered in flowers and buds that are ready to burst, however...

my pink hydrangeas are barely starting to open. Here's a fun fact about hydrangeas you may or may not know, you can control their color and actually change it. The pink can change to blue or blue to pink, however the white hydrangeas are constant, therefore you can not change their color.

Red roses, my absolute favorite. I took this photo right after a light rain earlier today.

Clustered blushing beauties.

Clean, crisp and fragrant clustering white roses.

The small star-shaped scented jasmine.

These look like regular size roses but they're actually mini-roses. I just love 'em, they're so cute!

Another one of my mini-roses, in a dark shade of pink.

I've mentioned here, many times before, that I am not an avid gardener. I wish I could tell you the exact names and species of all the beautiful blooms in my garden but I can't. My philosophy is, if I like it, I want it in my garden. Then I plant it, do some research, follow directions and hope for the best.

What's blooming in your neck of the woods?