The Doctor's Order

From The Classroom to The Kitchen

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Spatchcock Roasted Chicken and Vegetables

Roasted chicken is such a staple comfort food that everyone should know how to master this simple recipe. INGREDIENTS

  • 1 (3 1/2-pound) whole chicken, patted dry
  • 2 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
  • 2 teaspoons black pepper
  • Small bunch mixed herbs, such as rosemary, thyme and sage
  • Bell Peppers
  • Carrots

The first step is preparing the chicken. The easiest way is to spatchcock the chicken. Spatchcocking, also known as butterflying, allows you to get a nice even crisp and cooks the chicken fairly quickly.

  1. To spatchcock a chicken, use kitchen shears to cut alongside the backbone. Then open up the bird so it lies flat. Remove the backbone entirely.

2. Next you will want to create your brine. For a dry brine, it’s best to season your bird at least 1 hour ahead and let it rest, uncovered, in the fridge. Cover the chicken inside and out with salt and pepper. The longer it is allowed to dry out in the fridge the better.

3. While chicken is in fridge, prepare your vegetables. Cut into small pieces and season with salt and pepper.

4. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place chicken in a roasting pan or large ovenproof skillet on top of vegetables and herbs.

5. Roast 40-50 minutes, Chicken should be approximately 160 degrees when it is ready. Let stand 10 minutes before carving.

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Orange Sesame Jalapeno Chicken and Vegetable Stir-Fry

Ingredients:

  • 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into small bite sized pieces
  • 1 tbsp onion powder
  • 1 tbsp garlic powder
  • 1 zucchini
  • 1 yellow squash
  • 1/2 onion
  • 1 small broccoli crown
  • 8 petite carrots
  • General Tso’s cooking sauce
  • Handful of grape tomatoes
  1. Take 2 boneless and skinless chicken breasts and cut into small bite sized pieces.
  2. Then season with onion and garlic powder.
  3. Saute chicken breasts on medium heat in 1 tbsp of olive oil.
  4. Cut 1 zucchini, 1 yellow squash, 1/2 onion, 1 small broccoli crown, and 8 petite carrots cut in half (length wise).
  5. Remove chicken from heat. Set to the side. Add carrots to pan and sauté for 3 mins. Then add other vegetables and cook on medium heat for 5-6 minutes.
  6. Add chopped chicken back into skillet with vegetables.
  7. Add 2 tbsp of a prepared General Tso’s cooking sauce or other low sodium stir-fry sauce.
  8. Cut up tomatoes and add on top of mixture.
  9. Mix well and serve with hot brown rice!

Enjoy

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Homemade Bacon

Bacon is delicious. The balance of salty and crispy texture make it quite an amazing treat. However, with the in institution of food processing, bacon has become pretty unhealthy. So unhealthy, that the WHO recently named bacon as a carcinogen on the same level as smoking. But ain’t no way we are giving up that good ol’ bacon. So here we’ve created a bacon recipe that avoids all those cancer causing nitrates, has less sodium, and is absolutely amazing. You will never want to eat that store bought processed bacon again!

Ingredients:

5 pounds pork belly, skin on
1/4 cup kosher salt 1 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons paprika
1 teaspoon cumin 1 teaspoon coriander 1 teaspoon garlic

Directions
1. The first step in making your own bacon is preparing the meat. Ask your local butcher for about 5 lbs of pork belly with the skin on. Rinse the pork belly and pat dry. Now get your sharpest knife and begin to skin the belly. This is the most taxing step. Be careful to only remove the skin and not the underlying meat or fat.

2. Next you will make the spice rub by mixing together all of the ingredients in a large bowl. Then massage the mixture all over the surfaces of the meat.

3. Transfer the pork belly to a resealable 2-gallon plastic bag. Refrigerate for 7-10 days to allow bacon to cure. Notice that we did not use any additional curing salts or nitrates which are the main carcinogenic agents in preserved meats.

4. After the meat is cured remove the pork belly from the bag, rinse thoroughly and pat dry. Refrigerate the belly on a rack, uncovered, 48 hours.

5. Next, using applewood chips, put the meat in the smoker on 200 degrees F. Smoke the pork belly for around 2-3 hours, or until the bacon reaches an internal temperature of 150 degrees F. If you don’t have a smoker, you can cook the pork belly in a 200 degrees F oven or on the grill until it registers 150 degrees F on a meat thermometer.

6. Remove meat from heat and slice bacon to desired thickness. To store, wrap the bacon in plastic wrap and refrigerate up to 1 week or freeze up to 2 months. You can then cook the bacon as desired on top of the stove, in the oven, or freeze/refrigerate for later use.