A Domestic Goddess, I Ain't
Safeway had whole chickens on sale for $.29 a pound so I decided, what the heck, I'll buy one. I figured I could bake it and make one meal out of part of it then shred the rest to use later for quesadillas or BBQ.
Due to my own incompetence, I got stuck really late at work last night but it was the only night I was going to be home this week so I had to bake him up. I cleaned out his guts, dropped in some garlic and seasonings and spread him out on the tray.
Problem: I have no idea what temperature to use or how long to bake it. The kitchen is not the room in the house where I do my best work, clearly.
After going through a couple of cookbooks, I could tell you how to cook Chicken Kiev, Chicken Kabobs...but still no idea on a plain, baked chicken.
I made an executive decision to set the oven to 375 and the timer for 50 minutes and headed to the living room to watch an episode of Angel.
Show over, I pulled the chicken out of the oven but he didn't look done. I cut into a juicy thigh and saw some pink so put him back in for 10 more minutes. The thigh looked done at that point but, since presentation wasn't an issue, I cut him in half which pretty much mauled him and I found pink still on the inside.
15 minutes after that (and an episode of Desperate Housewives later), I was finally eating dinner. Of course, by 8 PM, I was more tired than hungry so I didn't really appreciate having a home cooked meal.
There's a reason someone invented Healthy Choice dinners...it was for people just like me.
Due to my own incompetence, I got stuck really late at work last night but it was the only night I was going to be home this week so I had to bake him up. I cleaned out his guts, dropped in some garlic and seasonings and spread him out on the tray.
Problem: I have no idea what temperature to use or how long to bake it. The kitchen is not the room in the house where I do my best work, clearly.
After going through a couple of cookbooks, I could tell you how to cook Chicken Kiev, Chicken Kabobs...but still no idea on a plain, baked chicken.
I made an executive decision to set the oven to 375 and the timer for 50 minutes and headed to the living room to watch an episode of Angel.
Show over, I pulled the chicken out of the oven but he didn't look done. I cut into a juicy thigh and saw some pink so put him back in for 10 more minutes. The thigh looked done at that point but, since presentation wasn't an issue, I cut him in half which pretty much mauled him and I found pink still on the inside.
15 minutes after that (and an episode of Desperate Housewives later), I was finally eating dinner. Of course, by 8 PM, I was more tired than hungry so I didn't really appreciate having a home cooked meal.
There's a reason someone invented Healthy Choice dinners...it was for people just like me.
