Rosemary and Thyme Chicken with Savory Bubble Bread II

Sometimes simple is nice. Today was a simple day with a simple dinner. I spent most of my day cleaning the house. I know, it's so exciting, as you can tell I go wild and crazy on the weekends. ;) The plan was to grocery shop today, but the house was a disaster and my husband was working on the sink, so we skipped shopping. We barely have any meat left and after dinner, we are officially out of milk. Sometime soon we need to leave the cave and venture out into the world to hunt for food. I am sure I will bring back a kitchen gadget/trinket and I am even more confident that it will not match anything in my kitchen. I have the most mismatched kitchen on the planet. But it's colorful, which I love, making it my favorite room in the house. And now that it's clean, I have the urge to just stand in it. Probably because it's the only room I can stand in since every other room is filled with baby toys. 


Fortunately, I still have flour! Remember the bubble bread recipe I posted? Well, I made that again but replaced some of the herbs so that it would match the chicken. By the way, my cooking soundtrack was interesting today. I started with Edith Piaf, then switched to Louis Armstrong (his version of "la vie en rose" actually makes me cry), and then finished with Charles Aznavour. I bet you're expecting a French meal, and honestly, so was I at one point. No French food today though. But I can see it appearing in the near future. :)

Rosemary and Thyme Chicken

• 1 whole chicken
• 1/4 stick of unsalted butter, softened
• Salt/Pepper
• 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme (I didn't measure anything, just sprinkled it on)
• 1/2 lemon

1. Preheat oven to 425F.
2. Place the lemon inside of the chicken. Rub the chicken with the butter, sprinkle on the herbs, salt and pepper. Tie the legs together.
3. Place the chicken in a roasting pan and roast for 20 minutes.
4. Drop the heat to 350F and bake until finished.

*Note: I do not have a roasting pan, so I place a wire cooling rack on top of a large baking sheet and then set the chicken on top.

Prepare the herbs.

Make dough balls and roll each ball into butter and herb mixture.

Cover with a damp towel until doubled in size.

Eat up!

Savory Bubble Bread II Recipe

First Savory Bread

Serving Size = 1 lb loaf

Dough

• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 tablespoons softened butter
• 1/2 cup of warm water
• 1/2 cup of warm milk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 2 1/2 cups bread flour (unbleached)
• 1 package active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast)

Topping

• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1 teaspoon paprika (I used sweet)
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon dry minced onion
• 1/2 teaspoon rubbed sage
• 1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon

1. Add the egg, 2 tablespoons of butter, water, milk, salt, sugar, bread flour and yeast to the bread machine in the recommended order of your machine. Select dough cycle and press start.
2. When it's done, remove the dough and cut into 20-25 dough balls (I had around 18). 
3. For the topping. Place 1/4 cup of melted butter into a bowl. In a separate bowl mix all of the spices and cheese.
4. Quickly roll each dough ball in the butter. Place each ball into the Bundt pan, stacking randomly next to each other and on top of each other. Sprinkle on the topping so that every single dough ball has the herb mixture on top. *Note: Last time I made this I rolled the dough in the mixture and the herbs burned slightly on the bottom. Sprinkling the herbs on top fixed the problem.
5. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise for 30 minutes, or until doubled in size. If you used bread machine yeast, it will probably rise in half the time.
6. Preheat oven to 350F
7. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown.

The only food left in the fridge: Lettuce, a few carrots, tomatoes and cheese.
A salad seemed like the obvious choice.

The bread didn't even make it to the table before my family started on it.
We also had mashed potatoes. 
Sshh, don't tell anyone about our excessive carb consumption. :)

Linking to: Kitchen Tip Tuesday