Intro: Hey, hey everybody. Welcome to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can always get on the table. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich.

Susie Weinrich: Hello, hello everybody. What’s good today? So I’ve been doing something kind of new recently that I have absolutely fallen in love with. There’s a new platform on Pinterest called PinTV. It’s where you can go live and cook. Some people paint, some people do makeup. I’m obviously cooking and I have fallen in love with this platform. It’s super easy. I can literally make dinner live and share all of my, you know, kitchen tips and tricks and recipe knowledge. It goes live out to Pinterest and people join and watch me, and I absolutely love it. Who knew that that’s something that I would like to do? So it’s kind of opening a whole new world for me this year. Like maybe I wanna do TV or a news segment or something. So anyway, I made this recipe for Instant Hot Chicken Alfredo last night on PinTV. So you can listen to the recipe here like we always do, or you could pop over to the episode on PinTV which I’ll link in the show notes for you and you can actually watch me live making this recipe. But if you are just looking for a really good easy pasta, maybe Instant Pot pasta recipe, this is so good. I ate it after the pin TV episode last night, and I think I could have eaten my weight in this chicken alfredo. It’s that good. 

Tips and Tricks: There’s a few key ingredients that make it better than any other alfredo recipe you’re gonna find on the internet. So let’s go ahead and get started. We always start with tips here on let’s make dinner. So we’re gonna start with tips and specific ingredients that you want to have for this recipe. So we’re gonna actually start by talking about the Parmesan cheese. Parm is definitely a key ingredient to making Alfredo, and it’s no different here with this Instant Pot Chicken Alfredo. My tip is to purchase the very best Parmesan cheese you can, and generally that’s going to be something that looks kind of craggy and dry and has a rind on the outside that maybe is stamped or has lettering or words on it.

That generally means that it came from a larger wheel and it’s going to have a really true Parmesan flavor. Buy the best Parmesan you can. And whatever you do, don’t buy pre shredded and don’t buy the powder stuff. You want to grate your own Parmesan. It’s going to make it creamier and more flavorful. 

Another thing that’s gonna make your Alfredo the best Alfredo on the internet is by adding the lemon. We’re going to add lemon zest and lemon juice to the liquid that’s gonna cook the pasta and the chicken. That is just gonna add the perfect bright note that an Alfredo needs to balance all of the flavors. You’ve got the carbs, you’ve got the chicken, you’ve got the cream, the Parmesan. It’s a heavy dish. When you add that lemon, it just brightens everything up and almost separates the flavors so that you can taste everything individually. It’s definitely a key ingredient. 

Another key ingredient that cannot be swapped is the heavy cream. You have to use heavy cream in the Instant Pot to keep it stable. So that fat content of heavy cream ensures that it doesn’t separate or curdle when it’s being cooked in the pressure cooker. You cannot sub half and half, whole milk. Milk will not work the same. You need that heavy cream. 

Now, of course an Alfredo is generally made with a fettuccini, which is great, use a fettuccini. I have also tested this recipe with linguini, and that works as well too. 

All right, just a couple more things before we get to the full recipe. We’re gonna talk about just cooking pasta in general in your Instant Pot. So the key here with the longer pasta, we’re gonna break it in half, which I know is sacrilege to all of you full blood Italians out there. But to actually fit it in the pot, you do have to break your pasta in half. So you’re going to break them in half. Then the key here is you’re gonna crisscross all of the noodles so that they don’t cook together in one big clump. You’re going to just use eight ounces of pasta for this recipe, break them in half, and then separate that eight ounces into four or five piles. Crisscross them as you layer them in the Instant Pot, and they will cook up perfect for you. All right, and like I just said, this recipe only calls for eight ounces of fettuccini noodles. On the recipe I say this will serve anywhere from two to four people. At your house, eight ounces of pasta may only serve one person. It may serve four people. It depends on are you serving all adults that are really hungry? Are you serving kids? You’ll have to decide if you want to double or triple the recipe. But there have been plenty of people on the Mom’s Dinner comments and then also on Pinterest who have doubled and tripled the recipe with no problem whatsoever. So you should be able to do that and be just fine. Those are all of my tips and tricks. So let’s get on to making the full Instant Pot Chicken Alfredo recipe.

Instant Pot Chicken Alfredo Recipe: You’re gonna start with your Instant Pot on saute mode, just on normal heat. You’re going to add two tablespoons of butter. Get that melted down in the pot, and then you’re going to mince two garlic cloves. If you want to mince four garlic cloves, go for it. But the recipe calls for two garlic cloves. Add those into the pot and just stir them around in the butter until it becomes fragrant. So just about one minute. You don’t wanna brown it, you don’t want your garlic to burn. You just want to start to soften it and get it really fragrant in the butter. 

Then you can turn off that saute mode and you’re going to add in one in three quarters cups of chicken broth or stock. That’s going to add really nice flavor to your sauce for this Alfredo.

Then you’re going to add in one cup of heavy cream, one tablespoon of lemon juice and about two teaspoons of lemon zest. For me, that’s usually about the zest of one entire lemon. Give that a good stir so that the zest gets distributed all throughout that liquid. Now it’s time to add that pasta. We’re going to add eight ounces of fettuccini, separate them into piles, maybe like four piles. Grab each pile. Break them in half, scatter them into that liquid in the Instant Pot. Grab the next one, break it in half, but turn it the opposite way so you’re crisscrossing that pasta in the liquid. Repeat that until you’ve used all of your pasta, and then you can take a wooden spoon and lightly shimmy that pasta so that it is all at least touching the liquid. You don’t have to jam it down in the pot so that it’s all in the liquid. It just needs to be at least touching that liquid. 

Now you’re gonna take one large chicken breast and cut it up so that it’s in about half inch pieces, and then scatter that all over the top of the pasta that’s in the Instant Pot. Now we’re going to season that chicken. You’re going to take about a half a teaspoon, a scant half teaspoon of onion powder and kosher salt. Sprinkle that all over the top. Then you can add fresh cracked black pepper if you like. I love fresh cracked black pepper with anything creamy. So I like a lot added into my Alfredo.

Now it’s time to cook. You’re going to pop that Instant Pot lid on, lock it in place. Turn the vent on top to seal, and then set your pot to cook on normal heat, high pressure for six minutes. It’s gonna go ahead and come up to pressure. It’ll beep. It will count down, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. It will beep at you again, and then it’s time to release all of the pressure. You’ll turn that vent on top. All of the pressure will escape in full dramatic fashion. It’s so loud. Once it’s ready to open, open up the pot. You’ll notice that it is still very soupy. Don’t worry, you haven’t messed up the recipe. It will come together, I promise. 

So what you wanna do is give it a little stir and then just let it set for about five minutes. As it starts to cool, it’s going to start to thicken. During that five minute period, you can grate up your fresh Parmesan cheese. You’ll need one cup. So then it’s time to add that cheese to the pasta. What I recommend here is that you do it in two batches. Add a half a cup, stir it into the pasta, and then add another half cup, stir it into the pasta. This is just preventing you from dumping one cup of Parmesan cheese into your pasta and having it steamed together in one big clump. That’s the worst. So you’re going to have a really creamy, yummy pasta at this point. If it’s still a little too liquidy for you, you can absolutely let it sit for about five more minutes and it will thicken up even more. Of course, you wanna give it a little taste before you serve it, you know? Do you want a little more lemon zest? Do you want a little more lemon juice? Do you need more salt? Do you want to add a little garlic powder? Just flavor it up exactly how you like it. 

Now when you serve this, you can serve it just as is. I think that this heavy, creamy pasta does really well with a green vegetable, like green beans or zucchini, or doing a side salad with a really bright vinegarette dressed on the green. So I have a great recipe for a basil vinaigrette that would be perfect paired with this Alfredo. Of course if you like garlic bread or breadsticks, add those too.

So that does it for this full recipe for Instant Pot Chicken Alfredo. Of course, I will link all of the recipes that I talked about in this episode right in the show notes, as well as that PinTV episode that I told you about where I’m making this for dinner live. It’s a 30 minute episode, really fast. You can watch it and learn how to make this.

Outro: As a newer show, we would love to have you either rate and review the show or follow along on your preferred podcast player. Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier. See ya.

I think Alfredo means “with cheese”. I need to look that up. I’m going to look that up right now while I’m recording. Let’s see. What does Alfredo mean in English? Let’s look. Alfredo. Well, it’s just saying a sauce for pasta. Oh, I know. Let’s look up, what does Fredo mean? In English, I’m sure somebody out there screaming right now, means cheese!!!!!! Gosh, nope. Cold and passionless. I don’t think that that describes Alfredo at all.

Intro: Hey, hey everybody. Welcome to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing Dinner recipes you can always get on the table. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

What’s up, everybody? Okay? Today I have such an easy recipe for you. It’s kind of like the recipe that anybody goes to when you’re like, okay, what in the hell are we going to have for dinner tonight? I don’t know, but I definitely have pasta and I definitely have sauce. Right? We are making a traditional spaghetti with meat sauce. We’re not making our own sauce. We’re going to use our very favorite jarred sauce and just keep it super simple. 

But there are a few ingredients that you can add to make it just a little bit more delicious and troubleshoot the flavors so that it comes out perfect and it will become your new go-to meat sauce that’s easy for any old Tuesday or Wednesday. 

Tips and Tricks: A couple tips when you are making spaghetti with meat sauce. First of all, let’s talk about pasta here. We’re talking about spaghetti, that’s fine. But anytime you are cooking pasta, you want to make sure that you salt the water. That is the key number one rule when you cook pasta. What you want to do is fill up a large pot with water and then bring it to a boil. Then you want to salt it generously, probably two tablespoons of kosher salt. Basically, you want the water to taste like sea water. So if you were to get a spoon, get a little bit of water, let it cool off, take a little sip of it, it should taste like salty sea water. Then you know that you’re actually going to season that pasta with the water, which is excellent. It makes a huge difference in the way your pasta dishes taste. 

The next tip here is obviously we’re not making our own sauce, so you want to use the very best sauce you can. For us, we find that Rao’s pasta sauce is number one. It is 100% more expensive at the grocery store, but that’s the main flavor that you’re using here. So you want to make sure that you’re using something that is super delicious. Even though you’re buying, let’s say a bottle of RAOs, that’s $7, and actually the very best place to buy RAO’s is at Costco. You get a double pack, and I want to say it’s $9 for the double pack. So if you want the RAO’s, go to Costco. But if you’re going to buy it at the regular grocery store, let’s say you buy that RAO’s. $7 for a bottle. You get a little pasta, maybe it’s a dollar for a pound of pasta. You get your ground beef, maybe another five or $6. You still have a fairly inexpensive dinner on your hands. 

The next tip we have here is for ground beef. We’re just making a traditional ground beef meat sauce. So with ground beef, anytime you’re making a recipe, the more fat content that your beef has, the more flavor it’s going to have. The fat is what equals flavor. However, the fat also is what equals greasiness. So in recipes like this where you’re actually cooking the meat in its own juices, I recommend using an 85/15 or a 90/10. You’re still going to have enough fat for it to be flavorful, but not so much fat that your dish turns out greasy. There’s also an option of 80/20 at the grocery store. I always like to say save that 80/20 for when you make hamburgers and you want all of that greasy juice, because some of it will cook out in the flames of the grill, but you’re left with just enough to have flavor.

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce Recipe: So let’s get on to making the full recipe for spaghetti with meat sauce. Obviously the first step is to go ahead and get your water onto boil, get it salted, and get your pasta cooking. 

While that’s boiling, it’s time to make your sauce. So what you’re going to want to do is grab a large skillet, something that has high sides that will hold all of the sauce and eventually the pasta. Go ahead and put that over medium heat and add one or two tablespoons of olive oil. Then you’re going to add your ground beef and cook it and kind of crumble it while it’s browning through. There is a tool called a meat masher that I will link in the show notes for you that is such a great tool to have. Anytime you’re cooking ground beef, ground sausage, ground pork, ground chicken, ground Turkey, it works really, really well. Now, if you have a lot of grease in the pan, you’re going to want to drain that off before moving on. Next, you’re going to add in half a yellow onion that’s diced, and three garlic cloves that are chopped. Get that sauteing around the pan for probably about five minutes until it’s starting to soften. Then we’re going to add a few extra spices. So you’re going to add one teaspoon of dried oregano, one teaspoon of dried basil, and then a half a teaspoon each of onion powder and garlic powder, and kosher salt. Give that a really good stir and let it coat all of the onions and the garlic and the ground beef.

Here’s a tip with your dried spices. Anytime you’re adding dried spices to a recipe, I always recommend that you put them in the palm of your hand, take the fingers from the other hand and just kind of crush them lightly. That will start to release their oils so that they can season your dish just a little bit better.

Now you want to turn the heat down to a low and go ahead and pour in that 24 ounce jar of marinara sauce. This is another tip that I love. We’re going to add a little bit of water, or you could do red wine, to your marinara sauce. But what you want to do is add about a third a cup of water to that empty marinara jar, you know how it’s really hard to get all of the sauce out of the jar. If you add just a third, a cup of water or red wine to that jar, pop the lid back on, give it a really good shake, and then pour it into the pan, you’ll get all of the sauce. Especially when you’re buying that expensive RAO’s sauce, you want to get every single drop out of that jar.

So then you’re going to let that simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes, just making sure that you’re stirring it occasionally, and then at the end you can either add the pasta right to your sauce and give it a really good toss or you can let people dish their own sauce onto their own pasta. Just make sure that you serve it with a little bit of Parmesan cheese or a Parmesan shaker on the side. Then we always love to add garlic bread or garlic breadsticks and a Caesar side salad. Some kind of just, especially on a weeknight, just an easy packaged salad is perfect here. So we usually get a pre-packaged Caesar salad and have that for dinner. 

Now, right on the recipe on momsdinner.net, you’ll find a lot of options for flavor troubleshooting as well. So I know that all store bought pasta sauces taste completely different. Some are really sweet, some are tangy, some are salty, and some are a little too acidic. So there’s lots of options for troubleshooting the flavor. Everything from adding a little cream to adding some sugar, adding some more spices. So you can find all of that right on Mom’s dinner.net.

Like always, I will link all of the recipes and all of the information that I shared here, right in the show notes for you so you can find it, pin it, share it, make it whenever you’re ready. 

Outro: As a newer show, we would love to have you follow or subscribe to your preferred podcast player. If you are on Spotify, we would love to have you just smash that five stars right on our show to give us a little rating. If you are on iTunes, we would love to have a rating and a review. It really helps our show to be put in front of other people. So until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier. See ya.

74 Shepherds pie_final

Intro: Hey, hey. Welcome everybody to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can always get on the table. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: So today we have the ultimate of all ultimate comfort food. It’s definitely a family favorite of my family and extended family as well. Today we are making a ground Turkey shepherd’s pie for dinner. You’re absolutely going to love it. It has all of the traditional flavors, except we’re using ground Turkey instead of ground beef. It’s got the carrots, the onions, the peas, and then it’s topped with a super flavorful mashed potato baked in the oven. Then your dinner is ready. You’re absolutely going to love this one. 

Tips and Tricks: Let’s talk about a couple tips with this recipe before we get started with the full recipe. Number one, this one is going to use a little bit of red wine, and I absolutely love cooking with both red and white wine in the kitchen. So the wine is just going to add a little bit of depth of flavor. You’re going to cook it enough so that the alcohol is going to cook out. But the other thing is that you’re only going to use about a half a cup of red wine. So you want to use something that you also want to drink, because half a cup out of a whole bottle is nothing. 

The other tip, or I guess just good advice is anytime you have a good amount of leftover mashed potatoes, this recipe should be top of mind because 50% of the recipe is making the mashed potatoes. So if you already have those done, this is going to be the perfect recipe, not only to use up those leftover mashed potatoes, but to have an amazing dinner. Now of course, if you don’t want to make your own mashed potatoes, you can absolutely use a store bought, pre-made mashed potato. I think some people will use the Bob Evans mashed potatoes, you know, that come in a little tub. Or you could go to your deli and get some mashed potatoes from the deli. Or if your store carries frozen mashed potatoes. I know that Trader Joe’s carries really great frozen mashed potatoes, you could use those as well. 

The other ingredient, the ground Turkey, if you would rather use ground chicken or ground pork or ground beef, you can absolutely make that substitution. The one thing I’ll say about using ground Turkey, you want to make sure that you’re not using the 99% lean ground Turkey. That stuff will cook up like the bottom of your shoe. It will be super chewy and flavorless. You want to opt for the 93/7 lean ground Turkey. That just means that 7% of the mixture is fat, and that is what gives it flavor, good texture, and moisture.

Shepherds Pie Recipe: Let’s go ahead and get into the full recipe. We’re going to start by making the mashed potatoes and what you want to do is take two to two and a half pounds of rustic potatoes that are peeled and cut into one to two inch chunks and place them in cool salted water. Then you just want to boil them or simmer them over medium heat until they’re about fork tender, so that’s going to be around 15 minutes.

You’ll drain those potatoes and return them back to the pan that you boiled them in, and you’ll mash them using either a potato masher, a potato ricer, or just a handheld mixer. You will also mix in a quarter cup of sour cream, five tablespoons of butter, two tablespoons of milk, either whole milk or half and half work really well here. One teaspoon of kosher salt and one fresh garlic clove that’s minced. So blend all of that together until it’s nice and smooth. Give it a little taste and make sure it tastes just how you want it. Then you can go ahead and set those aside and we’re going to make the filling for the shepherd’s pie. 

What I recommend doing here is making the filling in the pan that will also go in the oven. So you want to make sure you have an oven safe pan. What I love using is a 12 inch cast iron skillet. It works perfectly for the Shepherds Pie. Now you can also use a 10 inch skillet, but if you use a 10 inch, it’s going to really fill the pan up to the rim. So when it goes in the oven, you’re going to want to put a rimmed baking sheet underneath. You shouldn’t need that when you use a 12 inch. 

All right, so let’s get onto the filling. In that skillet, you’re going to place it over medium heat, and you’re going to add one tablespoon, up to two tablespoons of olive oil. Then you’ll add one small onion that’s been diced, a half a cup of celery that’s been diced, and a half a cup of carrots that are peeled and diced. Go ahead and saute that around the pan for about five minutes until the carrots and the celery start to soften just a little bit. Then you’re going to stir in one pound of lean ground Turkey, so that’s the 93/7 ground Turkey that we were talking about and three minced garlic cloves. While you cook that ground Turkey through, you can just crumble it up using either a wooden spatula or one of those meat mashers. If you don’t have a meat masher in your kitchen, it’s an item that I use all the time. It’s like if you took a wooden spatula and made five prongs on it, and it works through ground Turkey, ground pork, ground beef, sausage, everything perfectly. So I will link that piece of equipment in the show notes for you. 

So you’ll crumble that Turkey and brown it until it’s all the way cooked through, so about five minutes. Then you’re going to stir in one heaping and teaspoon of fresh chopped rosemary. You could also sub fresh thyme here if you don’t like rosemary, or if you prefer thyme. A quarter teaspoon of ground sage, one and a half teaspoons of kosher salt, a half a teaspoon of black pepper, one teaspoon of onion powder, two tablespoons of tomato paste. Give that a stir around the pan, and then you’re going to sprinkle in two tablespoons of all-purpose flour. Stir that in the mixture so it coats all of the veggies and the ground Turkey. Then you’re going to deglaze the bottom of the pan with the red wine. So you’re going to pour in a half a cup of red wine, a Cabernet, Merlot, Malbec, Pinot noir, any of those would work really well. What you want to do is when that liquid hits the pan and it sizzles really fast and steams, you want to scrape up any little bits that are cooked to the bottom of the pan, and that’s called deglazing. So you’ll want to reduce that at this point. So about four to five minutes, just let that simmer in the pan. Then finally, you’re going to stir in one and a half cups of beef broth, one cup of frozen peas, and one tablespoon of worcestershire sauce. Give that a really good stir and let it simmer for about two to three minutes. Then we’re ready to assemble everything. 

Now, one note though about your filling for the Shepherd’s Pie. If you like it just a little bit sier, you can absolutely add in an additional quarter cup to a half a cup of beef broth or red wine would be good too. You’ll take those mashed potatoes and dollop them on top of the filling that you just made the ground Turkey filling. Then what I like to do is take the back of a spoon and smooth it and spread it from edge to edge of the pan. Then I like to make some little swoops and swooshes in the mashed potatoes because those will get kind of brown in the oven and be so tasty and crispy.

So you will then take that skillet that is totally prepared and bake it at 350 for about 30 minutes. If you like the topping, the mashed potato topping a little bit more golden brown, you can absolutely pop it under the broiler for just a few minutes. But you do want to watch it because it will burn fast if you turn your back on it.

So at the end, you will take that Shepherds Pie out of the oven and just let it rest for about five to 10 minutes before serving. At our house, we consider Shepherds Pie, kind of like a one bowl meal or like just a complete dinner within itself. So you’ve got your protein, you have your veggie, you’ve got your starch all together in one dish. Now if you want to make it more of like a bigger dinner experience, you can absolutely add some dinner rolls, add a roasted veggie, like roasted fennel or roasted broccoli would be great. Or if it’s more of a springtime dinner, you could add roasted asparagus and then maybe even a side salad would be perfect here. With this dish, I think something like a balsamic vinaigrette or maybe like a blue cheese or a creamier dressing would be perfect. 

So that does it for the full episode. As always, I will link all of the recipes that I talked about in this episode, write in the show notes for you so you can pin it, save it, make it, share it, whatever, whenever you’re ready. 

As a newer podcast show, I would love it if you have a minute to rate or review or just follow the podcast on your preferred podcast player. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier. See ya.

Intro: Hey, hey everybody. Welcome to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can always get on the table. I’m your host Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: I’ve got such a luxurious, but still pretty easy recipe for you to make for dinner tonight. We are making a Shrimp Carbonara Pasta recipe today that is so rich and luxurious and delicious, but it’s full of super simple, easy to find ingredients which we love here at Let’s Make Dinner and Mom’s Dinner Kitchens. Also, if you believe in the statement bacon makes everything better, then this is going to be your jam, 100%. Also, before we get started, I will say that I’m a little nasally. I’m a little nasally right now. I just got over being sick for about a week, and so I’m still a little bit nasally, so I apologize for the sound. 

All right, so this recipe is actually super easy, like I said before. The one thing that you want to do is do something called mise en place. In cooking or baking, mise en place is basically just the French word for getting all of your things together in the kitchen. Making sure that you have everything measured, you’ve got all of the equipment that you need and when you do that, when you get all of your things in place, it just makes the recipe run a little bit smoother. So make sure that all of your spices are measured, that you have your water on to boil for your pasta. That your cheese is grated and that your eggs are at room temperature. Then it’s just going to run smoothly and dinner’s going to come together really, really quickly.

Tips and Tricks: So let’s go over a few tips for this Shrimp Carbonara Pasta recipe before you get started making it for dinner. So to bring your eggs to room temperature, the tip here is to take your eggs out, put them in a little dish of warm water while you get your mise en place ready, and your eggs will come right up to room temperature and be ready to use. The reason we do this is because the warmer egg is actually going to break down a little bit better in the sauce. So when you warm that egg up, the yolk I’m sorry, not the yolk, the egg white actually starts to get kind of runny and soft. When it’s cold, it’s really firm and it sets up like when you crack it into a skillet to make over easy eggs, and the egg white stays together, and that’s because it’s really nice and cold.

All right, so let’s also talk about the Parmesan cheese because that is one of the main components of the sauce for this pasta. I recommend using the best quality Parmesan cheese that you can buy. If you can find one that comes off of a large wheel that has the stamped rind, absolutely use that. But if not, just try to find the very best quality Parmesan cheese you can. It seems to me that the more you’re paying for Parmesan cheese, the higher quality and more true Parmesan flavor it has. Now if you don’t want to use Parmesan, you can absolutely sub some other cheese options. You could do a gruyere and it would be beautiful. Grana Padano or you could use a Pecorino Romano. The Pecorino Romano is going to be a little bit tangier in taste, but if you like that, it would work perfectly.

All right. This is another kitchen tip that you can use all the time. I love this tip. I think I first read it in my Cook’s Country magazine or maybe Cook’s Illustrated. But if you ever have a recipe that calls for reserved pasta cooking water, what you want to do is, you know, take your colander, put it in the sink, so it’s waiting for your pasta. But put a glass measuring cup into the bottom of the colander, and even if you forget to reserve your pasta water, it will catch some of the water as you start to pour your pasta in. That’s a great tip to keep in your back pocket for any time you’re in the kitchen. 

Okay, one more tip. This recipe also calls for bacon. You need six slices of diced bacon. And so if you’ve ever tried to cut raw bacon, it can be kind of hard to cut. What I like to do is just peel six strips off of the package and use sharp kitchen shears to just clip chunks of bacon off and just leave it in those strips put together and just clip right through it. It works really, really well. Those are all of my tips for this recipe. 

Shrimp Carbonara Recipe: So let’s go ahead and get started making your Shrimp Carbonara pasta recipe. Like I said at the beginning, you want to do your mise en place. So you want to get everything prepped before you actually get started with this recipe. So what you’ll want to do is put your egg in a little bowl of warm water and let that sit. Then make sure that you have a third cup of Parmesan cheese grated. Crack opened six garlic cloves. Measure out a half a teaspoon of red pepper flakes, a quarter teaspoon of kosher salt. Get your bacon out. Make sure you’ve got three quarters of a pound of large shrimp that’s peeled and deveined. 12 ounces of a linguini. Then put your colander in the sink with the glass measuring cup in the bottom. Then chop up a third of a cup of Italian parsley. Now you’ll also want to put some water on to boil on the stove and just salt it generously. Then also get out either a really strong blender or a food processor.

Then to start, in that food processor or blender. You’re going to add your one egg, your six garlic cloves, and six is a lot of garlic cloves, I know. But it goes really, really well with all of the other flavors in this dish. But if you’re really sensitive to garlic, you can absolutely dial that back to four cloves or two cloves, or you could leave it out completely. So you’ll also add red pepper flakes, the kosher salt, six tablespoons of room temperature butter, and that third a cup of the grated Parmesan cheese. Then you’ll blend that for about 15 seconds until it comes together and is nice and creamy. You may need to stop a few times and scrape the sides down to make sure that everything gets blended up together. Once that’s ready to go, you can just pop that to the side and let it sit and we will turn our attention to the pasta. 

You want to make sure that you boil your pasta salted water for as long as it takes for your pasta shape to become al dente. It should tell you that right on the package. Now when you go to strain your pasta, make sure you reserve at least a half a cup of that starchy pasta cooking water.

In a really large skillet, you’re going to saute your bacon pieces over medium heat until it is nice and crispy and brown. Then with a slotted spoon, you’ll just remove those bacon pieces to a paper towel lined plate and set those aside. Now you want to use that bacon grease that’s in the pan, but you only want to use about two tablespoons of it. So if you have more than two tablespoons in there, then go ahead and remove and discard some of that grease until you have about two tablespoons left in the pan. You’re going to go ahead and add that shrimp to the bacon grease and cook that over medium heat for about three minutes until they’re a nice pink color. Then you’re going to remove the shrimp and you can just put it on that same plate with the bacon. Then in that empty skillet, you’re going to pour a quarter cup of that reserved starchy pasta cooking water, and that’s going to deglaze the bottom of the pan. De glazing is basically when you use heat and a liquid to remove any flavored bits that get on the bottom of the pan. So the flavored bits that you have down there right now are going to be all of those bacon pieces and maybe even some shrimp pieces. So you want to release those from the pan and include them in your sauce. 

So then you’re going to stir in the pasta, the cooked pasta. Scrape in that butter egg mixture from the blender or the food processor. Add in the third cup of chopped parsley and then add in that bacon and shrimp from that plate. You’ll give everything a really good toss with a pair of tongs and it’s ready to go. 

Now, if you want it to be just a little bit creamier, you can absolutely add a little bit more Parmesan cheese and a little bit more pasta water, and just keep tossing and it will get creamier and creamier.

So you definitely want to serve this right away. This is not a make ahead dish. Serve it right away and you can top it with extra Parmesan cheese, with red pepper flakes or plenty of cracked black pepper. 

I will say this is definitely a five star recipe on Mom’s Dinner. It has over 20 5 star ratings, and I believe this recipe was also featured in the magazine L, their France edition. It’s a very, very popular recipe and I think you’ll be very happy with your dinner. 

As far as side dishes go, this is a pretty hearty recipe, so you could just do a really delicate green side salad or Caesar salad or some garlic bread or breadsticks on the side would be perfect. Then of course, maybe a big glass of cold white wine. That’s what I would have with it for sure. 

All right, so that does it for the recipe for today. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. As always, I will link all of the recipes I talked about in this episode right in the show notes for you. If you are loving these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love to have you subscribe or follow or rate or review this show in your preferred podcast player.

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner, makes your dinner time a little easier. See ya.

72 Instant Pot Baked Potato_final1

Intro: Hey, hey everybody. Welcome to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can always get on the table. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: What’s up everybody? All right, so do I have any Instant Pot lovers out there? I know that I am a huge fan of my Instant Pot. When I got it, of course, I was first very scared of it. I definitely thought it was going to blow up my entire house. I made everybody leave the kitchen the first couple times I used the Instant Pot, even for the water test. That first little test that you do in the beginning, definitely thought it was going to explode and throw shrapnel all over my house. But it did not, and I’ve become more and more comfortable with my Instant Pot as time has gone on.

I love cooking just about everything in my Instant Pot. Everything from hard boiled eggs, which is divine. I mean the shell literally slips off the egg and you can go back, I’m not sure which episode it is, but I will link that episode for the hard boiled eggs in the show notes for you guys. I love cooking soup, even large cuts of meat, such as pot roast, pulled pork, barbecue, beef, carnitas, anything works so well in the Instant Pot and it really cuts down the time and makes a lot of dishes, more hands off than they would normally be. 

Just like the recipe we’re going to go over today. Today we are talking about making baked potatoes in your Instant Pot. The nice thing about this is that it shortens the amount of time. So if you were to make baked potatoes in your oven, you’re looking at definitely 60 minutes, if not longer. You could also do them in the microwave, but that’s a lot of watching, checking, piercing. You know, there’s a lot of moving parts when you bake potatoes in the microwave. 

The nice thing about using your Instant Pot is you’re going to pop them in there, you’re going to set it, you’re going to forget it, come back, they’re going to be good to go, and it’s going to be a much shorter time. So I think in total we’re talking for like 30 minutes. So it’s going to be like a 15 minute cook time with a 15 minute natural release depending on what size your baked potatoes are. 

Tips and Tricks: So let’s go ahead and get into talking about this full recipe. There’s going to be a lot of little tips and tricks instead of just running through a full recipe because the actual recipe is so short.

So first let’s talk about the potatoes. A traditional baked potato is made with a russet potato, and that’s what we’re using here. So a russet potato may also be known as a baking potato or an Idaho potato. I’ve even heard of them called, this is super weird, an old potato. I’ve never seen it in the grocery store, but if you look it up, if you look up Russet potatoes, old potato is one of the words that they use to describe it. Generally it’s going to be baking potatoes or russet potatoes that you’ll find in your grocery store. The other thing is that they vary wildly in size. You can find potatoes that are pretty small. They’re going to be like four to seven ounces each. Then you can find something in the mid-range, so maybe like an eight to 12 ounce. And then you can find crazy large potatoes that look like the size of a thigh that are a pound or more each.

I think the great size when you’re looking at making a side dish or even a meal with a baked potato is more of that middle range. So anywhere from eight to 12 ounces per Russet potato is going to be perfect, and that is what this recipe is written for. 

The other thing is when you’re eating a baked potato, maybe you want to eat the outside, maybe you don’t. But Russet potatoes definitely have a layer of dirt on the outside. So you want to make sure that before you start this, that you give them a nice scrub or a nice wash under some running water. But if you do like to eat the skin of the baked potato and you want it to be a little bit crispy, there is an option that we’ll go over after the recipe where you can actually crisp the skin up in the oven. Because obviously if you’re cooking it in the Instant pot, the skin is not going to get crispy. 

Instant Pot Baked Potato Recipe: So let’s go ahead and get into the full recipe for Instant Pot Baked Potatoes. Like we said before, go ahead and wash your potatoes, then make sure that you take a fork or a really sharp knife and pierce your potato all over so they don’t explode from the pressure in the Instant Pot. Then you’re going to pour about one to one and a half cups of water just down into the inner pot of your Instant Pot. Then you’ll take that trivet that came with your Instant Pot, it’s like a little metal table looking thing, pop that into your Instant Pot and then go ahead and pile your potatoes right on top of that trivet.

If you’re using that eight to 12 ounce range of potato size, you’re going to fit probably four or five potatoes in your Instant Pot. The only thing you need to watch, you can layer them up, put them all in there. They can stack on top of each other. You just want to make sure that you don’t go past that max fill line that’s on the inner pot of the Instant Pot. You’ll see it, it’ll be a little line somewhere near the top and it will say max fill. So once you have those potatoes in there, go ahead and close the lid, turn that pressure valve to seal, and then set your pot to cook on high pressure for 15 minutes. 

Now, if you have smaller potatoes, if you found that you bought some smaller potatoes, then just set it for 10 minutes. If you found that you have the gigantic potatoes, then you do want to set it for 20 minutes. Let your pot come to pressure. Cook for, we’ll say 15 minutes for the medium sized potatoes. Then at the end you’re going to do something called a natural pressure release. What that is, your pot will count down to zero, beep telling you that it’s done and then it will start to count back up in time. That counting back up in time is considered a natural release. It’s no longer building pressure. The pressure starts to naturally dissipate. It’s just a nice way to have just a little bit more cooking time without it being that high pressure. So do that natural release for 15 minutes and then you’ll turn that valve on top to release. The remaining pressure will escape, and then you can open up the pot and your baked potatoes should be done, tender and soft all the way through. 

Now, here’s one little tip. If you want to check the true doneness of your baked potato, you can actually use an internal instant read thermometer. So go ahead and slide that into your potato. If it reaches right around 210 degrees, that means that your potato is going to be perfectly soft. It’s not going to be still a little firm. Now at this point, your potatoes are good to go. You can absolutely go ahead and eat them. But if you like to have a little bit of a crispy skin on your potato, then you’ll just want to give them a little rub with olive oil. Pop them in a 450 degree oven for about eight minutes, and you’ll just want to flip them during that cooking time. They should get a nice little crispiness on the outside. Of course, if you like it even more crispy, leave it in there a little bit longer, but make sure you’re watching so that they do not burn. 

Then of course when you’re serving them, we recommend just to load them up however you like. Butter, sour cream, cheese, bacon, green onions, even chili would be excellent poured over top of these baked potatoes. 

This is going to be really weird and I wasn’t even going to share this, but now I’m thinking about it. So how I like to eat my baked potatoes is just a little bit of butter, a good amount of kosher salt, a really generous drizzle of Italian dressing, and then black olives. It’s so weird and I’m not even sure how I came across eating them like that, but it is absolutely delicious. So if you want to maybe save a few calories and you’re not trying to have all the sour cream and cheese and all of that, give that method a try. It’s actually super delicious. Sometimes I’ll even put a little cottage cheese on top. It’s so bizarre, but it’s great. 

If you like any really weird toppings on your baked potato, I would love to hear in the comments of the actual recipe. So you can click through the link in the show notes to the baked potato recipe, jump down to the comments and just let me know what toppings you like on your baked potato.

So of course, like I said, all of the recipes that I talked about here today will be linked right in the show notes for you, so you can pin them, save them, make them whenever you’re ready. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier. See ya.

Intro: Hey, hey everyone. Welcome to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can always get on the table. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: Hey everybody. All right, so if you’re listening to this in real time, then it is New Year’s 2023. Welcome to the New Year. Time to reset, refocus, kind of a clean slate. Doesn’t it Feel fresh? It feels fresh and new to me. It feels like I have a chance to restart. I mean, it’s still the same old me, same podcast, all of that, but it feels like a clean slate. I’m super pumped for this year, the first podcast episode of 2023, we are making homemade chili. It’s the perfect winter food. When it’s really cold out, or like if it’s going to snow, you know, I’m making chili.

The chili recipe on mom’s dinner is definitely a classic. I would say maybe Midwestern chili, so it includes ground beef, it has celery, onions, garlic. It has a chili flavored tomato sauce, and then of course it has beans. I know that’s super controversial for some people, whether you have beans or not in beans and chili. But for this recipe, we are pro bean. If you do not like beans in your chili, this will not be the recipe for you. You’ll want to move on, make something else. Search no bean Chili on Google.

Tips and Tricks: A few tips for this recipe. You definitely want to start with a really flavorful ground beef. When I say flavorful ground beef, that just means that you’re going to use a higher fat content beef. So an 80/20 or an 85/15, will be perfect. 

The other part of this recipe that can be up for debate is the beans, which we talked about. In my recipe, I use a canned chili bean in sauce, and for me and my family, I like a mild one. It also comes in hot, which you can just find at the grocery store. For my chili beans, I love Brooks chili beans. Those seem to be the best, if you can find them, that’s what we prefer here. And I would definitely recommend you give them a try. The other beans that we add are Northern beans, and it’s like a white bean. I think it might be similar to a cannellini bean, so you could use those as well. Or you could use more of a kidney bean if you prefer that. A light or a dark red kidney bean will work here as well. As well as like pinto beans, really, the second bean, the chili beans in sauce, you want to keep just how it is, but the second bean that you add, that really is up to you. 

Homemade Chili with Beans Recipe: All right, so let’s get started with this full recipe for homemade chili. You’re going to start with a large pot. This makes a good amount of chili, so you want a big pot. I of course love a glazed dutch oven. You’re going to start over medium high heat, and you’re going to saute three minced garlic cloves and one large onion that’s chopped, and then two celery stocks that are chopped. Saute those in one or two tablespoons of oil until they start to soften a little bit. So this is going to be about five minutes. Then you’re going to add one pound of ground beef, and again, try to use something like an 80/20 or an 85/15 and just crumble that up while it cooks through. Probably about another five minutes.

Then at the end of that process, if you have quite a bit of grease at the bottom of your pot, what I like to do is scrape all of the beef and the veggies to one side of the pot and then tip the pot up and sop up just a little bit of that grease with some paper towels and a pair of tongs, and then discard the paper towels.

Now you’re going to turn the heat to medium low and you’re going to add in one four ounce can of chopped green chilies. A 15 ounce can of diced tomatoes, 16 ounces of tomato sauce, one cup of water, a 15 ounce can of chili beans in sauce. You want to make sure you don’t drain those because you want that chili sauce in your chili. However, you’re going to add another 15 ounce can of beans and the recipe calls for Northern beans. But like I said, you could use cannellini, you could use pinto beans or kidney beans. You want to drain those. 

Then for all of the spices and seasonings, you’re going to add one and a half tablespoons of sugar. It may sound weird to add sugar to your chili. Your chili’s not going to be sweet. What that’s doing is balancing the tartness and the acidity of all the tomatoes. You’ll add one bay leaf, one heaping tablespoon of chili powder, one teaspoon of dried oregano, one teaspoon of cumin. One teaspoon of kosher salt and half a teaspoon of black pepper. Now we’re going to add some spices you may not normally add to your chili, but they add such a warm flavor to your chili. So add a pinch of ground allspice, and a pinch of ground clove. Then if you like it spicy, you can definitely add some red pepper flakes or some cayenne pepper. 

So stir all of that to combine, and then you’re just going to let it simmer over low heat for about 30 minutes, stirring it occasionally. That’s the whole entire chili recipe. Of course, before you serve it, you’ll want to remove the bay leaf and just discard it. If you know or if you don’t know, chili actually gets better with time. It’s like the flavors develop and meld together. So if you can make this chili a day ahead. If you can’t, it’s going to be super delicious just as it is.

If you do make it ahead and you’re going to reheat it the next day, you may want to loosen it up just a little bit with a little water or chicken stock, or maybe even beef broth or even red wine would be really good. 

Now, when you serve your chili, we like to add all of the toppings and make it more of like a loaded chili. So we’ll put out maybe Fritos, sour cream, green onions, jalapenos, shredded cheddar cheese, or shredded pepper jack cheese, maybe some hot sauce. Fresh, chopped avocado or just saltine crackers or cornbread. So I have a lot of cornbread recipes on Mom’s Dinner that I will link in the show notes for you as well as a recipe for this chili made in the Instant Pot. So if you love your Instant Pot, you could pop over and make it in your Instant Pot instead. 

So that’s it. That does it for the full recipe for our classic chili. I hope that you will make this chili and enjoy it on a super chilly night with the blankets and maybe a good movie. As always, I will link all of the recipes I talked about in this episode right in the show notes for you so you can find them, pin them, save them, make them whenever you’re ready. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier. See ya.

Intro: Welcome, welcome everybody to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can always get on the table. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich.

Susie Weinrich: Woohoo. Happy holidays, everybody. If you’re listening to this episode or you’re looking at this recipe, then it’s probably close to Christmas time. Because today we’re going to make a really quick and easy Christmas dessert called a chocolate Christmas trifle. Super delicious, super easy. It’s not quite a traditional trifle. If you’ve ever had a trifle before, it’s kind of a traditional English dessert that’s made in one really big bowl that’s usually stemmed. It’s going to have layers of a pudding or a custard or a whipped cream and cake and fruit. But we’re going to sub out some of the flavors or something a little bit more festive. So we’re going to use peppermint cream cheese whipped cream. We’re going to use brownies, fudge and these little peppermint chip baking chips things that are so delicious, layer it all together in individual cups and it just makes a super impressive dessert. Perfect to stand up to the expectations of Christmas. 

Tips and Tricks: Let’s get on to making this delicious recipe for a chocolate Christmas trifle. Like I said, it’s not going to be totally traditional, so instead of using the stemmed trifle bowl, we’re actually going to make them in individual cups and just about any small cup will work here. What I like to use is something called a bodega glass, and I actually get them at World Market. They’re super affordable. I think they’re like 2.99 a piece or something, and it’s just a very thin plain glass, but it looks beautiful. Another option would be to go to a thrift store or an estate sale and find a set of really unique little glasses that you could serve your trifle in. But for the Bodega glass, I will link that in the show notes so you guys can take a look at it.

Christmas Trifle Recipe: To start this recipe, you’re actually going to need some prepared brownies. There’s two options here. Of course, you can make some brownies cool them completely, and then cut them up into little half inch pieces. Or you can go to your local grocery store bakery, buy a pan of brownies, chop those up, and that works too. So once you get those chopped up into little half inch pieces, you can just set that aside. 

Now in a large bowl of a stand mixer, or you can use just a large bowl and a hand mixer, you’re going to whisk together one quarter cup of cold heavy cream and four ounces of softened cream cheese. It’s really important that your cream cheese is completely softened at room temperature so that the cream layer is nice and smooth, and there’s not little chunks of cream cheese in it. I will tell you that cream cheese actually softens really, really quickly at room temperature. You can actually just cut it into smaller cubes and it should come to room temperature within about an hour. Once that quarter cup of heavy cream and the four ounces of cream cheese come together totally smooth and soft, you’re going to pour in one teaspoon of peppermint extract and a half a cup, this is a heaping half cup of powdered sugar. Then you’ll continue to whisk that until everything is combined. Now, to finish this off, you’re going to slowly stream in an additional one and a quarter cups of cold heavy cream. You’re going to whisk that until soft peaks form. So what a soft peak is, let’s say you’re using a stand mixer and you pull that whisk up out of the cream cheese mixture, a little peak and it will slowly sink back into the bowl. That’s a soft peak. The whipped cream cream cheese mixture should be about the texture of a thick pudding. 

Now another ingredient that you’re going to need is hot fudge. What I like to buy for this, there’s a brand in the grocery store called Mrs. Richardson’s, and we love that fudge. So you could just buy a 15.5 ounce jar of hot fudge. Take the lid off because the lid is metal. Take the lid off, pop that glass jar in the microwave for just a few seconds and let it warm through and then it will be ready to use. 

Now it’s time to assemble your individual chocolate trifles. So for this part what I like to do is put all of my glasses onto a rimmed baking sheet that will fit right in the fridge. Then in each glass, you’re going to start by putting about three to four pieces of brownie down on the bottom. Then you’re going to drizzle in one to two tablespoons of fudge sauce. Then you’ll cover that with a layer of that peppermint whipped cream. Then you’re going to do a generous layer of this stuff called Andes Peppermint Crunch chips. They sell out like hot cakes this time of year. So if you are going to make this, you’re going to want to run to the store and see if you can find it. You’ll either find it in the baking aisle near the chocolate chips, or you’ll find it in the candy aisle near all of the Christmas candies.

So put a generous layer on that, and then you’re going to repeat all those steps one more time. So three to four pieces of brownie, one to two tablespoons of the hot fudge, a layer of the peppermint whipped cream, and then you’ll finish it off with the Peppermint Crunch chips. Then you’ll put all of those glasses right into the fridge. That’s why I like to put them on that rimmed baking sheet because you can put them all in there at the same time, about 12 to 24 hours in the fridge for everything to set up. Then you serve those cold. They go perfect with a candy cane on the side and a nice hot cup of coffee. 

So that does it for the full chocolate Christmas trifle recipe. I hope you’ll make this for Christmas. If you do, I would love to have you rate and review the recipe right on momsdinner.net. 

So as always, I will link all of the recipes I talked about right in the show notes for you so you can save it, find it, pin it, use it whenever you’re ready. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your holiday time a little sweeter. See ya.

Intro: Welcome everybody to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: Hey everybody. Welcome in. Have you guys ever wanted to make a full roast chicken, but it just feels so daunting to roast a whole chicken? What if the skin burns before the meat’s done? What if it doesn’t get crispy? What if I cut the chicken and the meat’s not cooked? There’s so many variables when you’re cooking an entire chicken, and so today I’m going to share with you my entire post on how to make the most perfect, crispy skin chicken that you’ve ever had. The breast meat and the thighs and the legs. They’re all going to be juicy and delicious and flavored, yet the skin is going to be brown and golden and crispy from top to bottom. You’re absolutely going to love it. However, this recipe does take at least two days to do the entire process, but that time and that care is what results in the best, most delicious chicken you’ve ever had.

With this audio recipe, I’m just going to kind of walk through the entire thing. You’ll get all of the tips and tricks along the way, so let’s go ahead and get started. 

Tips and Tricks: First, let’s talk about buying really quality chicken. If you’re going to take two to three days to make roast chicken, then this is the time that you want to buy really quality chicken. In my experience, your best bet is going to be air chilled whole chicken. Then from there you can go with your organic or your grain fed or free range or whatever the other terms are that you’re looking for. But the most important one that has the biggest effect on texture and taste is air chilled. This is a more expensive process, so if a chicken company uses air chilling, they absolutely will put it right on the front of their packaging. I live in the Midwest and the brand that I always look for because I know it’s air chilled, is called Smart Chicken. If you have that in your grocery store, you can absolutely bet that it’s going to be perfect and delicious.

There are also a couple sneaky terms that people put on their chicken packaging that definitely mean nothing. The first one is all natural. All natural means nothing. It basically means your chicken is not made of plastic. Well, duh, right? The other one has no hormones added. It’s actually been illegal since the fifties to add additional hormones to the chickens. If you see both of those terms, pay no mind, they mean absolutely nothing. 

Perfect Roasted Chicken Recipe: The next steps are going to take a couple days, so one to two days. So if you want to make this roast chicken, you definitely want to plan ahead. What you’re going to do is take your chicken out of the packaging and if it came already trussed, which means it’s tied up with string, go ahead and take that string off right now because what we’re going to do is salt the chicken and then we’re going to put it on like a drying rack and put it in the fridge for one to two days. The skin is going to start to dry out, which is going to make it super crispy in the oven. Then what’s going to happen is that kosher salt is actually going to start to make the bird like sweat kind of. It’s going to pull some moisture out, but then that moisture is going to mix with the salt and sink back in and flavor the actual meat of the chicken. This is a great way to get flavor all the way in your chicken. 

Tips and Tricks: So what you’re going to do is take a large rimmed baking sheet, and then if you have a cookie sheet or a drying rack or something that will fit into that baking sheet, put that in there so that the chicken will be raised up off of the surface and air can circulate all the way around it. So pop your chicken on top of that rack, and then you’re going to salt your chicken on all sides and even inside of the cavity too. You’re going to want to do this with one tablespoon of kosher salt. Do not use iodized table salt for this process. You definitely want that coarser more delicate flavored salt. So kosher salt is where it’s at, and I use either Morton’s or Real salt, or my very favorite is Diamond Crystal. 

So once you have that all nice and salted up, you’re going to put it in the refrigerator uncovered, because we want the air to circulate all around the chicken for 24 to 48 hours. What’s going to happen is the skin is going to start to darken and it’s going to start to dry out in the fridge. But that’s exactly what you want. 

Okay, so after the chicken has dry brine in the fridge for one to two days, you’re going to now prepare it for roasting. First you’re going to start by stuffing herbs, lemon, garlic, all of that into the cavity of the chicken. So I like to take a whole entire garlic clove and just chop the top of it off, shove that in there, shove a little rosemary, thyme, parsley, and a few lemon wedges down into the chicken.

Then you’re going to truss, and I’m going to try and explain this as best I can. When you truss a bird, basically you’re pulling the legs and the wings up close to the bird so that it all cooks together and the legs and the wings don’t burn before the rest of the bird is cooked. You’re going to set the bird breast side up and you’re going to cut a really long piece of kitchen string. It’s also called butcher’s twine, or kitchen twine. You’re going to snuggle that right underneath the tail of the bird. Then you’ll bring each end up and around the outside of the legs, and then meet them up at the top, cross them and pull them down under and around the legs. So it’s like you’re circling the legs, and then when you bring that string back up, you’re going to pull it and it’s going to pull the legs right into the bird exactly where you want them. Then what you’re going to do is take that string and pull it up around to the top side of the bird and tie it right at the front. That’s it. That’s trussing. It’s pretty easy. If that sounds confusing, I’ve got some great pictures on the post that show you exactly how to do it. 

Now, what you’re going to do is brush the skin with olive oil and be generous here. Make sure you add a lot of olive oil. That’s going to help the skin get nice and crispy in the oven. Then you’ll season with a little kosher salt and some black pepper, and then it’s ready to roast. 

You’re going to preheat your oven to 475 degrees, and while the oven heats up, you’ll want to have your chicken out at room temperature. This is called tempering and it will take the chill off the chicken so that it cooks a little bit more evenly in the oven. So while all that’s happening, you’ll want to go ahead and prepare your roasting pan. What I like to do is put some veggies down at the bottom of the pan that I will actually serve with the chicken. Some things that I like to add in there are large carrots, red potatoes, onions, fennel, turnips, or even brussel sprouts. You’ll just put them down into the pan, coat them with a little bit of extra virgin olive oil, a little bit of salt, little pepper, and give them a good toss. Then you can kind of move those veggies around to the outside and then pop that chicken, breast side up right into the middle of the pan. Then you’ll take that entire pan and roast it in the oven at 475 degrees, and this is uncovered, for about 25 minutes. Then you’re going to turn the heat down to 400 degrees and roast for another 45 minutes. At the end of that time, what you’ll want to do is check that the bird has reached at least 160 to 165 degrees at the thickest part, somewhere between the breast and the thigh. But you don’t want to touch a bone when you’re taking the temperature because you’ll get a false reading of temperature if you actually put the thermometer on a bone.

Our very favorite thermometer that we use is the Therma Works. I think it’s called Instant Read ThermaPen. I’ll link it in the show notes for you. It is the best piece of equipment. I use it all the time.

While your chicken is roasting, if at any point you feel like the skin is getting too dark, you can always tent it really loosely with foil. That will just stop that browning process. The chicken will still cook just from the ambient hot air, but it won’t have that direct heat to continue to brown that chicken. 

All right. Once it is completely roasted, you’ll want to let it rest uncovered for about 20 minutes before carving. If you’ve never carved a chicken before, what you want to think about is that the chicken is in eight pieces. There are two wings, two breasts, two thighs and two legs. You’ll first of course, want to take the trussing off the chicken, so just clip that little string in one spot and it should just unravel from the chicken. Then what you want to do is carve your chicken up into those eight pieces. 

How I like to do it is start by taking off the two breasts at the top and right in the center of the top, right in between the two breasts there runs the breast bone. What you can do is run your knife right along either side of that and then down and around the breast, and it should just literally pull away from the chicken carcass. 

Then the wings up top will literally just pull away from the chicken and you can bend them in the opposite direction and they should just crack right off from the main chicken carcass. The next part is the thigh and the leg. These two usually come off as a combo really well. So the thigh is going to be underneath the chicken. Then of course the leg is the iconic piece of chicken that people hold. Those two should come off together really nicely. Then of course, you can take that leg off of the thigh or keep them attached and serve them as one piece.

Now what you’ll have left after you take all of that off is the chicken carcass. You can absolutely use this again. What I like to do is put the chicken carcass in a freezer safe baggie. Pop it in the freezer and then I will make chicken stock in my Instant Pot a few days later, a few weeks later. Sometimes I’ll even just pop that chicken carcass in the fridge and then make the chicken stock the next day. So I of course will link that recipe for you in the show notes. 

Some great side dishes for roast chicken. You know, roast chicken is like a classic. Roast chicken, maybe make a little no drippings gravy. I’ve got a wonderful, wonderful recipe on momsdinner.net that I will share with you in the show notes. Maybe some mashed potatoes, and then just serve all the veggies that you cooked right underneath the chicken. It would be a beautiful dinner. So as always, I will link all of those recipes right in the show notes for you. So they will be there for you to pin, save, print, or make whenever you are ready. That does it for today’s episode. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner, makes your dinner time a little easier.