My mother is the best cook I know. Yeah, okay, everybody says that about their mom. But, they haven't tasted my mom's food, that's why. 'Cause then, they would see how much my mom's food is so much better. My mother has always been a good cook. She was a hard worker (and still is - too much for her own good actually) and all while working all day long and taking care of my sister and I in the evenings and weekends, she had to come up with some quick, easy and delicious meals. Most of the time, she would do what I do right now and make a huge meal in the weekend and we would have that for dinner all week. My dad wasn't much of a cook. He would sometime make dinner when she was too busy, but it never turned out as good. (Sorry dad.) But in his defence he does help a lot around the kitchen though. And his mashed potatoes are the best. He's also a terrific baker and his desserts are awesome.
One thing that has always stuck around in my memories of living at home is how every Sunday - EVERY Sunday - my mom would make chicken. I remember at some point even getting sick of having chicken every Sunday. It was good! But, at some point I couldn't have it anymore. Well, I'll tell you what, ever since I left the family nest, I have never missed her chicken so much in my life. Nowadays, whenever she invites me for dinner on Sunday to have some chicken, even though I have chores and things to do in preparation for the upcoming week, I can't help it and I just drop everything to go have dinner at home.
You know, living solo and having to take care of myself and cook for myself made me realize not only how good I had it at home, but also how hard my parents have worked to take care of my sister and I and make sure that we were well fed. I wasn't always an angel and I know at times I was a little prick who took their hard work for granted. But, since I left home I fully realized how amazing my parents have been and I can't find any words to express all the gratitude I have for what they have done. I love them so, so much.
Anyway, enough with the memories and emotions. The reason I'm writing this post is because my mom gave me her roasted BBQ chicken recipe, and I'm about to share it with you, you lucky sons of bitches! You're going to see that it's pretty easy and if you do it, you'll see how amazingly delicious it is. So here we go.
Ingredients:
- 1 large chicken (with some of the fat trimmed off)
- kosher salt
- 1 large or 2 small garlic cloves
- St-Hubert BBQ seasoning (probably only found in Quebec. St-Hubert is a chicken rotisserie chain. Kind of like Swiss Chalet, but a thousand times better.)
- Montreal Chicken seasoning
- PiriPiri seasoning
- Onion powder
- Sage
- Savory
- Salt + pepper
- Olive oil
- Bovril chicken stock concertrate
- Some water
- 1 bag of mixed baby potatoes, cut in half
- or 4-6 yellow potatoes, quartered
- 1 large sweet potato, cubed
- 1 small bag of baby carrots
- A bit of thick cotton string.
- 1 can of St-Hubert BBQ sauce. Only in Quebec. I swear it's the best sauce ever. I could drink a glass full if it wasn't so bad for my health.
Directions:
First, take care of the potatoes. Clean up the sweet potato with a brush under cold water, peel it and and cut it into large cubes.
Then quickly rinse the small baby potatoes in cold water, cut out any roots that may have grown and cut the potatoes in half.
Then open up the bag of baby carrots and add them to the mix.
Drizzle some olive oil on top of the vegetables, and sprinkle some sage, savory, onion powder, salt and pepper. Enough so that when you mix the vegetables they will all get covered by the oil and the herbs. Then set aside.
Peel the garlic cloves and set them aside.
Now for the messy part. First, preheat your over at 350F. Then, put the chicken on a large cutting board and with the help of a knife, remove any excess fat. Mostly around the legs and the butt of the chicken. Then, inside the chicken, sprinkle about a teaspoon of kosher salt and make sure it covers the entire interior of the chicken. You may want to roll the chicken so the salt goes all over the place and sticks all over the inside. Then, put the chicken on its back and add the cloves of garlic inside.
Now, transfer the chicken into the roasting pan. Sprinkle the St-Hubert BBQ seasoning, the Montreal chicken seasoning and the Piripiri seasoning on the chicken. If there are any spots without spices, just put some in your hands and rub it where you need to. Rub the entire surface of the chicken with enough seasoning so that the chicken is red. Then tie the legs together with the string.
Now, add the vegetables in the roasting pan all around the chicken. Drizzle a little bit of the chicken stock concentrate on the vegetables. Not a lot! Just dizzle a few drops all round. Maybe about a teaspoon or two. Then add a little bit of water over the vegetables, just enough so that the bottom of the pan is covered. Probably no more than a cup.
Pop this bird in the oven, set the timer for 2 hours, and wait. After 2 hours, it should be done. The vegetables should be just a little tender. If you think it needs more cooking, add it for another 30 min. But, keep an eye on it. You don't want it to get dry. Mine was perfect and super juicy after 2 hours.
Look at that delicious white meat! It was soooo juicy and tender. And the spices on the skin made this really tasty and flavourful crust. Oh man! I was preparing my lunch for the next day and I could barely restrain myself from eating the whole thing because of how delicious it was.
I felt more accomplished as a cook now that I have cooked my first whole chicken. The next step will be to take the carcass when I'm done with it and make some soup! Maybe this weekend? Find out soon!
Thanks for the recipe, mom! I love you.
