Monday, March 12, 2007

Chicken run

My family loves to eat chicken and I do too. Only problem is, I can't stand touching raw chicken. It feels too much like human flesh with all the muscles, skin and bones. If I'm really lucky (sarcasm), I get the privilege to view and pull out the remnants of a chicken feather still stuck in a raw fryer just purchased. Ewh. Bleck. Double Ewh. What kind of mother am I that I want to pewk when I handle chicken? Now, when I was a little girl, I would watch my mom masterfully handle a whole fryer, cut it up, break the leg bones, and turn it into a delicious dish that everyone would consume with gusto. She made it look so easy. I naturally thought that I would have the same talent when I grew up...that I would make the same kinds of delicious meals like my mom, but am somewhat ashamed to admit that I. DON'T.

In the early years of my marriage, I always purchased a large fryer from the chicken case. Why not? They were cheap. My mom and grandma always had a large stock of them in the deep freeze. They fed many guests and, well, heck? Who does not like chicken? Over time, I tried to master the skill of cutting up chicken, but I ended up using too many dull blades, spent too much time slicing through tough bone, or risking losing a finger or two. So I stopped buying raw chicken fryers and evolved to purchasing cut up pieces of chicken. That worked for a while. But the pieces were cut so large, that they were difficult to cook and I found it hard to determine if they were cooked thoroughly. Even so, because of budgetary issues, I continued to purchase the larger pieces of chicken (with bone included) until...well..until...I became pregnant. That was the straw that broke the camels back.

After five pregnancies where I was green for the first four months, just the thought of raw chicken would get me up off the couch to dry heave in the toilet. (Not a pretty sight.) After my last two pregnancies, I realized that I needed to narrow the kind of chicken I would purchase so that I did not have to handle any "skin". I no longer buy chicken with the skin/bone, I only buy boneless chicken breasts or tenderloins that are frozen and tend to be "buy one get one free" at least once a month at my grocery store. I stock up on those! But last night, I was given a gift from GOD! I visited my grocery store late in the evening to get a few things for the kids’ lunchboxes. As I passed through the deli section, I spied those yummy, cooked, rotisserie chicken fryers...on sale!! Since it was the end of the day, the chicken fryers (did I mention that they are already seasoned?) were $3 off the regular $6 price!! There were only 6 chickens left....and I bought all 6! These guys are great for chicken potpie, spaghetti, in stews or soups! YUM! I get to skip the time consuming step of cutting, baking and cleaning up raw chicken juice and the kids get some really juicy chicken that they consume with gusto!

What is for dinner tonight? How can I resist making this easy meal?

1 comment:

Rosemary said...

I love those rotisserie chickens-- so convenient, tender...
I'm OK with chicken generally but I do hate to pull out a feather :)