Chicken!

Here's a post I should've made a week ago, and completely forgot! And then, just by chance, I've had two questions about the very subject of this post, both within the last 24 hrs or so - I guess it's a sign!

So... What could be so evil, so disgusting, sooooo dangerous to have in your house that you need not ONE layer of plastic around it...

...but THREE layers of plastic!? A ziplock bag, a grocery bag, AND a garbage bag!?

Why, a half chicken from Bluebird Meadow Farms, of course! You realize that ALL chicken is VERY dangerous - you're likely to get salmonella from it! ;-) Well, ok, that's the case IF you're my mom - the rest of us realize that not all chicken is basted in salmonella - and it's probably even LESS likely when you get your chicken from a respectable, clean, and well-intended farm where the chicken was raised - like Bluebird Meadow Farms! In fact, Kelli (aka The Girl in the Kitchen) is a microbiologist, and I know for a fact she swabbed around various places where the chickens were and was planning to try growing some funk in petri dishes to see just how infested those chickens WEREN'T!

Anyhow - here's the chicken, with lemon slices and herbs tucked under it's skin, plus salt, pepper and more herbs on the outside, about to go on the grill.

And along with the grilled chicken, I thought trying Pioneer Woman's Crash Hot Potatoes would be a fun side... Here they are after being boiled and lightly "crashed", and then sprinkled with salt, pepper and rosemary, and drizzled with olive oil.

A close up of one of these scrumptious tasty treats just before going in the oven.

After grilling the chicken. You'll see she's looking a bit scorchy on the outside - she had some good fat to her skin, and there was quite a bit of sizzling and catching-on-fire going on while she was on the grill. Just gave her more good flavor!

And if we're doing some home-cookin', it only makes sense to steam up some green beans! I gotta tell you, this was one heck of an amazingly good dinner! The freshness of the beans. The buttery potatoes (with no butter on them!) - with crisp bits here and there from their time in the oven. And the juicy, tender chicken that tasted soooo good! With no offense to Andy and Kelli, I didn't get that "more chickeny than grocery store chicken" taste from it - but that could be because it was overwhelmed with herbs, lemon and grilled flavor. But trust me, this was good stuff, and it "tasted" even better knowing what a good life it lead, where it was raised, and how humanely it was treated.

I think I'm places orders for some more chicken next year! Sure, there's going to be some "food miles" attached, but it's not like we can't head up to NY for a family visit anyhow.