Coconut, Curry, and Lime Whole Chicken

Coconut, Curry, and Lime Whole Chicken


1 whole chicken, 3-5 lbs (with skin)
1 can coconut milk
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp cumin
3 tsp salt
2 jalapenos, cut lengthwise
1 large garlic clove, finely minced
4 key limes
1/2 large yellow onion, cut into wedges

1. Optional: The night before, remove any internal organs from your chicken, and place in a small deep pot; cover with water. Put on the lid and refrigerate until the next day. I always do this step as it ensures a moist and delicious chicken every time.

2. Take chicken and place in a deep bowl, cut deep slits into chicken breast and thighs. Rub 2 tsp salt under the chickens skin and on the breast meat. Pour coconut milk over the whole chicken and cover bowl with plastic wrap. Place in refrigerator until 2 hours before dinner.

3. Preheat the oven to 375F. Lay out your roasting pan. Place coconut covered chicken in roasting pan (breast side up or down-does not matter), discard left over coconut milk. Combine curry and cumin, sprinkle evenly all over chicken. Spread salt and place jalapenos inside the chickens cavity.

4. Squeeze the juice of limes over the chicken and place in the bottom of your roasting pan. Sprinkle garlic over the top, pushing some pieces into the cut slits of the chicken meat. Scatter onion and other jalapeno in the pan, around the chicken. Pour a little bit of water (about 1/2 cup) in the bottom of the pan. Cover with foil.

5. Roast chicken for 1 hour, remove foil and roast another 30-45 mins or until golden brown and meat thermometer registers 180F in the chicken's thigh.

6. Enjoy! Serve with Coconut Rice, garnished with roasted jalapenos.

Calories calculated using Sparkrecipes calculator: 162.8 calories per serving

Lemon and White Chocolate Scones

One of my favorite flavors is lemon. In fact, I most often will choose lemon over any other flavor. There is something about it's taste that is both refreshing and soul warming.

It reminds you of the warm sun on a summer's morning and the refreshing scent that triggers our thoughts of clean homes and fresh produce.

My lemon tree is just exploding now (yay!) and I will soon have a lot of yummy lemon posts to share once I get around too it.

My kick start recipe? Lemon and White Chocolate Scones. Yum...  

Lemon and White Chocolate Scones            Makes 8

1 3/4 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1/2 tsp lemon juice

1/2 cup (one stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/3-inch cubes

3/4 cup white chocolate chips

1/2 cup buttermilk

1. Mix sugar and lemon zest with hands until aromatic. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and lemon-sugar mix. Add the cut butter and mix just until coated with flour. The butter chunks should be an obvious presence, let them not be less than half their original size.

2. Add the white chocolate chips. Stir gently.  Slowly add the buttermilk and mix until just absorbed. Stop mixing when the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.

3. Pre-Heat oven to 350F. Scrape the dough from the bowl and drop by rounded tablespoons.

4. For the classic scone shape, form the dough into a ball. Pat the dough into a 7-inch disk. Cut into quarters and then again into eighths. Set the scones on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes. Drizzle with your favorite glaze. I used my leftover vanilla bean glaze from my pumpkin cinnamon rolls.

Calories calculated using Sparkrecipes Calculator: 255 calories per scone

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

So in my annual hunt to find new recipes for one of my favorite flavors: pumpkin, I came across the simple idea of Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls at Taste of Home.

It wasn't a new idea, but it just hit me, that I REALLY needed to make these. Have you ever had a recipe haunt you? Well this was mine.

I took my favorite cinnamon roll recipe, added a dash of pumpkin flavors to it and topped it off with a vanilla bean glaze....ooooh.

These are seriously dangerous. I won't make these unless it's for a crowd because these can VERY easily be gobbled up by one person. And if you are inviting me over, that one person will be me. ;)

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls          Makes 15-20 rolls

Rolls

3/4 cup milk

2 1/2 teaspoon yeast

1/3 cup  sugar

1 cup pumpkin

1/3 cup melted butter

1 teaspoon salt

3 eggs

4- 5 cups all purpose flour

Filling

1/4 cup butter

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup natural sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg, fresh grated or ground

1/2 tsp cloves, ground

1/2 tsp ginger, ground

Pumpkin Glaze

2 cups confectioner's sugar

1/4-1/2 cup milk
1/2 vanilla bean
4 oz cream cheese

Instructions

1. Heat milk (either in a sauce pan or microwave) until milk begins to simmer- add butter. Let cool until a warm temperature (about 120˚).

2. In a deep bowl, add milk mixture, yeast, and sugar. Let sit for five minutes. Add 3 1/2 cups of flour, salt, pumpkin, eggs and mix until combined. Add the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time until the dough forms a nice ball and pulls away from the bowl. Turn out the dough onto a clean surface and knead the dough until smooth and elastic- at least eight minutes.

3. Grab a clean separate bowl, lightly spray the dough with cooking oil and place in a warm draft free spot until dough has doubled in size (around an hour and a half.)

4. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll out into a 10 by 14 rectangle.

Rub room temperature butter over entire surface and cover with sugar and spice mixture (if it has the words sugar and spice in it, you know it's going to be good!). Roll the dough into a log. Cut into 12-16 1 inch thick pieces. Place in a sprayed pan. I would suggest a 9x13 pan. I myself don't have a pan that big, so I used an 8x8 and a 7x11 pan for 15 rolls.

5. To cook for breakfast the next morning: Cover pans with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator overnight. If you want to continue on, cover and let rise in a warm place for another hour and follow with remaining instructions.

6. The next morning, preheat the oven to 350˚ and remove cinnamon rolls from the fridge and let sit on top of the warm oven to warm and rise to the size you'd like. Mine took longer then I thought, about an hour.

7. Bake for 20-25 minutes until cinnamon rolls are a nice golden brown color. Let cool slightly.

8. While cinnamon rolls bake, take out a small sauce pan and pour in milk. Scrap seeds out of vanilla bean and add to the milk, add vanilla stem too. Cook on low, being careful not to let the milk steam or boil. When the milk begins to smell aromatic, like vanilla turn off the heat. Meanwhile, whip cream cheese until soft and creamy. Mix in sugar slowly until combined. Remove vanilla stem, throw away. Slowly add milk mixture to sugar and cream cheese.

9. Once rolls are out of the oven and while cinnamon rolls are still warm, spoon icing over the rolls. Enjoy while warm (as if there is such a thing as cold cinnamon rolls!)

Calories calculated using Sparkrecipes Calculator: 266.7 calories per roll, with two tablespoons of glaze on top