(easy) Holiday Eats
Hello, my loves! The holidays are now upon us, and unfortunately, COVID decided to stick around 🙄 I know that so many of us are hosting smaller celebrations this year, and some will have to have solo holiday dinners. If that is you, I have a few recipes PERFECT for a small, easy holiday meal. Check out the recipes below!
Easy Roast Chicken
1 whole chicken, spatchcocked (Whole Foods sells whole chickens already cut this way)
Salt
Pepper
1/2 cup OF whipped butter
1 tbs of thyme
1 tbs of rosemary
4 large carrots
3 stalks of celery
1 large yellow onion
7 cloves of garlic
1) Preheat oven to 400° F. Take the spatchcock chicken and place in a shallow dish. Liberally season both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper - make sure that the seasoning completely covers the chicken, but is not caked on. Place the chicken in its dish in the refrigerator for up to one day to marinate. LEAVE UNCOVERED to ensure crispy skin while roasting!
2) When ready to cook your chicken, take it out of the refrigerator and allow the chicken to come to room temperature. In the meantime, create a compound butter using the whipped butter, thyme, and rosemary. Add a few teaspoons of salt and pepper to that, and combine the butter and seasonings. Place to the side.
3)Grab the baking dish that you will be cooking the chicken in. I recommend a 11X13 pan or larger. Rub butter in the bottom and on the insides of the pan.
4)Rough chop the carrots, celery, onion and garlic coves, and place in the bottom of the buttered baking dish.
5) Take the whipped butter and rub on both sides of the chicken. Pull up the chicken skin, and rub the compound butter underneath the skin as well. This is an important step to make sure that the meat gets as flavorful as possible.
6) Place the buttered chicken on top of a bed of carrots, onions, celery and garlic . Place the entire dish into the oven on the middle rack.
5) After about 1 hour - 1 hour and 15 minutes, remove the pan from the oven and allow the chicken to cool. The skin will be crispy, but if you prefer a shinier bird, base the chicken with the pan juices. Carve up your chicken and serve!
Pan Brussel Sprouts
1 package of brussel sprouts
2 tbs of olive oil (or other oil of your choice)
1 tbs of balsamic vinegar
Salt
Pepper
Garlic powder
Options toppings: dries cranberries, goat cheese, roasted, chopped almonds and roasted pork belly (or bacon)
1) Preheat the oven to 400° F
2) Slice each brussel sprout in half, length-wise, and place them in a bowl. Add the oil and balsamic vinegar to the bowl. Season the brussel sprouts to taste with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Mix together the brussels, oil, vinegar and seasoning until well coated.
3) Arrange the seasoned brussel sprouts on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (or foil if you don't have that.) Place in the oven and bake for 25 minutes.
3) It's that easy! I like to add additional toppings to my brussel sprouts, like diced dried cranberries, crumbled goat cheese, roasted pork belly or bacon, and finely chopped roasted almonds. But you can add anything!
Easy Mac and Cheese
1.5 cups dried macaroni
3 cups of cheese - I use 1 cup whole cheddar, 1 cup colby jack and 1 cup gruyere cheese
1/2 can of evaporated milk
2 eggs
1/4 stick of butter
salt
pepper
1) Preheat oven to 375°. Boil the macaroni in very salty water - prepare using the package instructions. Reserve one quarter cup of the water that the pasta is boiled in. Drain the pasta when it is boiled, and set to the side.
2) Whisk together the eggs and evaporated milk until well combined. Season this mixture with salt and pepper - a few tsps. of each
3) Add the prepared macaroni to a buttered 8x8-in square pan. Add all of the liquids to the pan - the evaporated milk mixture and the reserved pasta water. Add one and a half cups of the cheese mixture to the pan . Stir all of the contents in the pan together.
4) Slice the quarter stick of butter into very thin pieces, and add dabs of butter throughout the macaroni in the pan. Season the pasta mixture with salt and pepper.
6) Add the remaining cheese to the top of the mixture. Put the pan in the oven and cook for roughly 30 minutes. It is ready when it starting to brown and bubbling.
Cranberry sauce
112 oz package of fresh cranberries
One cup of fresh squeezed orange juice
One cup of white granulated sugar
1 tsp of orange zest
Add the orange juice and the sugar to a saucepan and cook over medium heat. Stir the sugar into the orange juice until dissolved.
Then, add the cranberries to the pot and stir. Cook for 2 minutes, and then add the orange zest to the pot. Cook for an additional 5 to 6 minutes, until the cranberries began popping open.
Take the cranberry sauce off of the oven, and pour into a bowl or container to store it in the refrigerator overnight. When ready to serve, garnish with orange zest and mint.
Let me know if you try any of these recipes - I would love to hear how the turn out!
I hope you all have a happy holiday season - stay tuned for more recipes in the next few weeks!