A scientist in the kitchen

The Noche Buena feast is my especialty. Often, I start thinking of what to serve on Christmas eve dinner as early as October. I start getting excited on what to cook, often influenced by what cooking show or recipe book I am into at the moment. Now, food blogging has added another dimension to my cooking, getting ideas on herbs and spices, dishes and presentation. Christmas eve dinner often would have roast chicken and noodles or pasta. Plus, tsokolate eh and some sweets which are mostly gifts from friends.

I am already busy in the morning of December 24, having decided what to cook for the Noche Buena feast and a light dinner before that.

This year, my sister and I decided to have roast chicken once again with yet another variation. Also the noodle is sotanghon with carrots and shiitake mushroom. What is special about the noodles is that we used a particular brand we could only get from Iligan City (a pasalubong from my uncle, Mom’s elder brother). And instead of store-bought chicken, we used native chicken which we raise in our backyard.

One of my discoveries for this year is fennel, the seeds to be exact. I wanted to follow the Amateur Gourmet’s roast chicken recipe up to a point. One advice from him was to really dry the chicken, like use a lot of paper towels to dry it. Which I did, and my roast chicken came out really crispy! But then I like garlic and a lot of herbs so in the end I used not just fennel.

Christmas 2007 roast chicken

Ingredients:

For brining:

1 cup salt
3 cups water

1 tbsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp peppercorns
5 pieces laurel leaves

Bring all ingredients to a boil till salt dissolves. Cool down. Strain the brine. Place chicken and brine in a bid pot and add enough water to cover the chicken. Cover the pot and let sit for two hours. After two hours, pat chicken really dry paper towels.

Marinate chicken with a mixture of herbs. I crushed one whole garlic and put them inside the cavity and under the skin. Mix 1 tbsp crushed pepper and 1 tbsp fennel seed place inside cavity and under chicken skin. Add 2 pcs laurel leaves to cavity. Wrap the chicken with saran wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least two hours (I marinated the chicken for 10 hours).

Before roasting, rub chicken skin with a mixture of oil and dried herbs (I had in hand rosemary, basil, tarragon, sage and thyme). Roast chicken at 375oF for an hour, turning once to brown the other side. I use a thermometer, so when chicken is at around 140oF, I increase heat to brown it for a few minutes. When done, let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

It took me almost the whole day to prepare, but it was worth it!

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