My family loves the combination of jalapenos and cilantro in just about everything...such clean and fresh tastes, therefore I try to use these flavors as much as possible. Chicken has never been one of my husband's favorite so I try to do different things to see if he likes it, also I try to see how many meals I can get out of one piece of meat. I recently discovered that I can get three meals out of a roasting hen and it starts with this recipe.
Ingredients
1 large roasting hen washed and dried
1 package of Old El Paso regular taco seasoning
6 large fresh jalapenos washed and split in half lengthwise
1 large bunch of fresh cilantro
olive oil to drizzle over chicken
super strength Reynolds aluminum foil ( I have only been able to find this at Brookshire Brothers) if you can't find this you can use heavy duty doubled.
I start sprinkling the cavity with 1/2 of the taco seasoning, then I stuff the entire bunch of cilantro into the cavity. Next I take 6 of my jalapeno halves and put them in the cavity around the cilantro with the seed side facing the meat. I then gently separate the skin from the chicken breast and rub taco seasoning on the breast and top with the remaining halves of jalapeno remembering seed side towards the meat. I drizzle olive oil over the chicken sprinkle the remainder of taco seasoning on top and wrap tightly in the aluminum foil.
I put the chicken on a baking sheet and into a 400 degree preheated oven for 2 hours. At this time I check the chicken to make sure that the legs are falling off, if so I remove and let cool.
After the chicken is cooled I debone it and save all the juices and bones and any bits of chicken in a dutch oven for boiling down later or freeze all of this for a later date...This makes either the best chicken and dumplings using the Bisquick dumpling recipe or a great stock for tortilla soup. Very flavorful stock.
We eat one meal off of the baked chicken usually with a rice dish or jalapeno cheese grits. Next I make a chicken salad and then finally we have the dumplings or soup.
My husband has loved this recently and it has definitely helped stretch the budget. Hope you enjoy...let me know if you try this I would love to see if you enjoy it as much as we do.
