Winter. Brrrr.
But also, mmmmmmmm.
Some flavours just scream winter. Roast chicken, parsnips, sage and apple cider leap to mind. And it is certainly winter in Australia at the mo. Even here in ‘tropical’ Brisbane we are suffering through single digit temperatures. 
Ours is a brown rice house by default. The are always exceptions to the rule of course – rice pudding for example. Or dining out. It’s great to see a few restaurants around my area with brown as an option now too. We are not a health blog as such, more an overall good eating and enjoying good food sort of folk. But I’m “down with brown” in the rice department if you know what I mean. For flavour and texture. And fibre. “Gives your bowels something to chew on” I heard said recently. Hungry now?
You will be 🙂
Flat Chai Chicken.
De-bone your chicken – butterflying or spatch-cocking it’s called. I’ve made a video here but no commentary. In hindsight, commentary would have been a great idea. You can always ask the butcher (’cause we all support our local business and buy from the butcher, right?) to do this for you – de-bone the chicken, not provide commentary.
We’re using a griddle pan because we have one. A bbq is a great alternative or just a plain old frying pan will do.
It’s important to use a constant medium heat. Season the chicken with olive oil and plenty of chai salt. Place skin side down in the pan. Chuck a knob of butter in. Cover with grease-proof paper and place a pan and a weight on top. You may think we will squeeze the juices out this way, but if you weight the bird from the start, you are just re-shaping it. The advantage here of course is saving time.
After about 10 minutes, turn the bird over for just 5 minutes to sear the underside and turn over once again onto the skin. Put the weight back on. Our size 12 bird was done in 10 more minutes, 25 minutes in total. Remove from the pan and rest on a plate until ready to carve and serve.
What Kid Did
Chai Salt – Toast the spices in a warm pan until toasty and aromatic. Grind with 1/2 the sea salt until fine. Pass through a sieve to remove any large spice pieces. Fold in the remaining salt. You’ll only need one third of this mix, store the rest for a rainy day in an airtight container.
Parsnip gravy
Ingredients – The bones from your chicken, 2 small parsnip, 1 small carrot, 1 brown onion, 5 garlic cloves, 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh sage, 1 tablespoon balsamic, 350ml cider, 350 ml stock, 50gm butter.
HOW Roast the bones, veg, sage and butter on baking paper. Roast for 45 mins on 180* turning occasionally. Put the contents into a saucepan with balsamic vinegar. Reduce by 2/3’s. Add apple cider and reduce by half. Add stock. Simmer for 15 mins. Remove bones. Puree. Suck on bones. Mmmm…
Bird Seed Rice -1/2 cup brown rice, 1/2 red rice, 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds, 1/2 cup sesame seeds, 1 tablespoon cumin seeds, 1/2 cup sunflower seeds. 1/2 cup nuts. 100ml good olive oil, juice from I lemon, 1 bunch of parsley – chopped and picked.
HOW Simmer the rices together in lightly salted water for about 30-35 mins. Rinse and refresh. Toast the seeds and nuts all together on *140 for about 20 mins or until just toasty. Grind them a bit in a mortar and pestle. 
Combine rice, seeds, parsley, oil and lemon with a little salt and pepper. We used the chicken pan to re-heat the rice when it was time, letting it soak up all the lovely chicken juices.
We added some hot buttered peas at Kid’s insistance , served everything piping hot and covered in our sweet, tasty gravy. Thumbs up all around!
The nutritional benefits of brown rice are discussed here if you’re interested. I like it because it tastes great and makes you feel good. Thanks to The World’s Healthiest Foods.
This post is named after a song by The Bees. Kid loves this song. Music can bring out the best in your cooking at times, give it a whirl.
Happy cooking,
C&K
🙂
Cook And Kid 
Anita Colbier
/ July 21, 2015Hey Cook, I really like the way the format of the posts are coming along. Very easy to read and all the same theme. I also like the addition of a video (although, hard for me to watch as I am vegetarian and feel for the animals being cut up). Nice work.
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adamjclements
/ July 21, 2015Thanks Anita. Thanks for the feedback! I can assure you that chicken lived like a queen and died peacefully in her sleep 😉
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Cyndie
/ July 25, 2015It such a clever idea to cook with kids! I am a passionate home cook too, I have no children as yet but I’d love for my kids to be involved with cooking one day. Your photos look like you’re having lots of fun and oh so delicious! I see you’re going to #pbevent next month, I look forward to seeing you there x
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adamjclements
/ July 25, 2015Hey thanks Cyndie! We do have fun, it’s good connecting time for us. I’d like to share that with more peeps like yourself. There’s plenty here for people without kids too I think. I’ll keep an eye out for you at PB! It’s my first, pretty excited 🙂
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David Hawkins
/ July 31, 2015Yummo! This looks amazing, yet again Adam! I have never attempted to debone anything, but with the awesome how-to video you’ve provided, I might have to give it a go. Will this same technique work on emu?
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adamjclements
/ July 31, 2015Yep David, it sure will. You just need a bigger knife and a bigger frying pan. Or a very small Emu. When it comes to de-boning, a bird is a bird is a bird. Pretty much anyways. Next demo will have commentary! Thanks 🙂
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