Whole Roasted Chicken with Sauteed Cabbage

Last week Central Market had whole chickens on sale for an absurd price. Actually whole chickens are often very inexpensive and provide the base for an additional soup meal. You know how people always talk about how much money you can save cooking at home instead of eating out? If you ate like this every day, you would. I like to experiment, so I'm not sure that we save any money in the long run, but we eat well and I can control everything that goes into our bodies. This dinner fed the four of us, plus leftovers for the kids school lunches for a grand total of about $8. And I could have made that under $5 by using bulk rice or lentils or another bulk grain instead of the Near East boxed couscous. That link is to the Roasted Garlic and Olive Oil flavor instead of the Herbed Chicken shown in the picture. We grabbed the wrong box from the grocery likely while trying to wrangle small toddlers from tearing open the dried beans to pour all over the aisle.

Cabbage costs absolutely nothing, like 79 cents or something. The secret to mine is sauteing in a tiny bit of bacon grease. Yumm. Cabbage is a cruciferous vegetable, like broccoli, kale, and brussel sprouts. If you clicked on that link and read any of it, it seems to prevent nearly every kind of cancer with amazing results.

Make sure you save your chicken carcass for a soup base, I'm making tortilla soup with mine.

Whole Roasted Chicken

3.5 lb whole chicken
1/2 of a small lemon, cut into quarters
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed a little
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
paprika
olive oil

Preheat oven to 400. Rinse chicken, remove any giblets and pat dry. Put salt and pepper in chicken cavity. Place lemon and garlic cloves inside chicken cavity. Place chicken on a rack in a roasting pan. Drizzle with olive oil, then sprinkle with paprika, kosher salt, and fresh ground pepper. Cook for approx 16 minutes per pound, though check to ensure chicken reaches an internal temperature of 160. Let rest for 10 minutes then carve and serve.

Sauteed Cabbage

1/2 head of green cabbage, sliced thinly
1/2 tbsp bacon grease
kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

In a cast iron skillet, warm the bacon grease over medium heat. Add cabbage and saute until cabbage turns a bright green and softens about 7 minutes.