Capitol Hill Blue Forums Misc. Topics Food, Drink and Cooking What's cooking?

Thanks for the heads-upon the poultry shears, Greger!

I love roast chicken! But Mr. Scoutgal thinks it's too much trouble with all the bones. A turkey is different, because it is so big and someone else(my father-in-law or my son-in-law) always carves the turkey. So all he has to do is transfer from platter to his plate.

Thinking of doing a crown prime rib roast with wild rice for Christmas dinner!

errr....
A crown rib roast is done with pork.


You can have your butcher French a standing rib roast to get the effect of the bare bones sticking up but a beef rib roast is too thick to tie into a circle.

If Mr. Scoutgal doesn't much like the bones in roasted chicken I think you'll be pleased with spatchcocked bird. Especially if you remove the wishbone prior to cooking. Once the bird has been allowed to sit for 15 minutes or so make a cut down either side of the breast bone, working the knife between the breast meat and the bone and pulling the bone away from the meat. It should be just cool enough that you can work your fingers down into the cut and pull the breast meat completely off the bone.

Technically there is no such thing as a "Prime Rib Roast"
Prime is a designation of the quality of the beef, it is the highest quality and contains the most internal fat or "marbeling", consequently it is the best tasting and tenderest meat.
And of course the most expensive.
Most USDA Prime beef is sold to high end restaurants. USDA Choice is the best that most of us can get out hands on, including most restaurants which feature "Prime Rib" on their menus. USDA Select is the next grade down and the less expensive grocery stores will mostly be selling Select beef at far better prices. But you get what you pay for and this really isn't very good beef.
The lowest grade is USDA Standard. This is the meat your gonna find in a McDonalds burger, canned beef soups and stews, processed and frozen prepared foods, cheap premade frozen hamburger patties. It's truly awful beef but can be made palatable with sufficient processing, tenderizing, pressure cooking and god knows what all they do and add to it to get you that cheap frozen lasagna and teevee dinners..

Greger~Well, pork is good, too! Have you made one before? I haven't, so I am looking for good recipes. I'll have to make a good pork stock to cook the wild rice in.

You can roast your chicken on a broiler pan, so the fat goes through the slots into the pan below. That controls the spattering at least though it might smoke a bit at 450.

I love my poultry shears. We get them at Harbor Freight very cheap.

I'm gonna go with 400 degrees. It worked like a champ with the turkey. Maybe I'll preheat the oven to 450 then drop it to 400 after the chicken has been in a few minutes.

My poultry shears are cheap and ancient, at least 15 years old and have never been sharpened. Sometimes they stick when I slam them shut cutting through bones but I've never had a problem with them. I use them often for breaking down whole birds for frying, cutting joints apart when I'm carving birds and I've been spatchcocking chickens and the big Perdue game hens for years with them, I just never thought of increasing the cooking temp to improve the quality of the breast meat. Removing the wishbone and breaking the breast bone to flatten the bird out was also new to me.

Scout, yes I've done a few crown roasts and they are awesome and make a great holiday presentation. Be sure and have the butcher French it for you, then wrap tinfoil around the end of each bone so it doesn't blacken while cooking.
If you want to go completely hog wild with it make paper frills to go on each bone for a truly spectacular presentation.

Oh, and Scout, tell the butcher you plan on stuffing it so he should leave a fist sized hole in the middle, otherwise he will tie it too tight and there wont be room for the rice.
It's been a long time but the problem I recall was that I overcooked it so the meat was a little dry(twice) the third time I managed to get it right.
Remember that the internal temp will rise considerably as the meat sits before serving so take it out before it reaches the actual temp you are shooting for. It's okay if it's very slightly pink in the middle when you serve it.

This is generally true although at the Costco in Eugene one can get prime beef. Since the economic crash in 2008 they have somehow been able to get ahold of it in our neck. Recently I bought a package of prime grade strip steaks there for $8.99/lb--- which today is an amazing price.

There are about 8 steaks per tray and I package them separately then vacuum freeze them. I mostly grill them, slice them up, and have them over a super salad. Good stuff mon.

Which brings to mind--there was a local restaurant I went to from time to time for lunch when a teen. One had the choice of having soup or salad before the entree. The waitress would ask me “Would you like the super salad” and I would reply---yes!!!

Drum roll-cymbal crash.

My local BJs has individually packaged prime strip steaks too. But they're more like $14.99 a pound and to be honest I didn't find them to be much better than the choice strip steaks right beside them.
If I'm gonna drop that kinda cash on a meal I'll go with lamb chops over a strip steak any day.

Stators Market in San Diego has NY Strips for $4.99. Probably awful, but I'm game to try. We have a butcher shop here that actually buys all the 4H and Future Farmers animals and butchers them. They are a bit pricey but I bet they are prime.