Roasted Dill and Garlic Chicken and Peach Preserve Corn Muffins

So Sunday was a busy day. Woke up, cleaned, had tea with one of my Truman friends, hit the gym, and came back to roast a chicken and bake some muffins. Ok. Maybe it wasn't that busy, but it sure did feel like the day went by fast as when I was finished washing all the dishes it was basically time to shower, brush my teeth, and go to sleep. Oh Sundays. How I wish they were longer as I really hate Mondays, particularly the Monday I had this week. Though I did get to see Anthony and a bunch of Sanford friends and celebrate Jason's 25th.


Anyway...to the chicken and muffins! I must mention first that I have switched over to buying the organic chickens at Giant instead of the Purdue ones. I think you can taste the difference (it isn't as rubbery), but also I got a bit reformed by reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I wish I could afford to buy whole chickens from the farmers market at Columbia Heights but at $5.50 a pound I don't think I really want to be paying $16 for a three pound bird. Afterall, I'm a young professional on a budget! But at least I'm adding to the demand for antibiotic free/not feed animal by product chickens right? Oh well. It's my money and I trying to make the right decision here.

So...as for the chicken. I'm really enjoying roasting birds and trying new and different herbs with them. Since I had dill leftover from making pickled carrots I thought a dill and garlic chicken would be great to have for lunch with a salad for work for the rest of the week. Plus I have carcass I can freeze to make chicken soup with later in the fall (I have two carcasses in my freezer right now since I roasted a chicken earlier in July).Check out what I did to make my dill and garlic chicken below. Personally, I think next time I might try a dill brine with some mustard seeds perhaps to get the dill taste into the whole bird.

Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of the whole roasted bird, but I got a nice picture of what I will be taking to lunch for the next few days! A little bit of spinach salad covered with squash sauted with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper. Yum! And healthy!

But the highlight/failure of the night was my corn muffins with a peach preserve filling. I guess not all my adventures can come out looking great. But the main thing is there tasted ok. The peach preserve really made them, and I figured out how when to put the peach preserve on the muffin so the muffin will rise and cover the preserve so when you take it out it will be right in the center of the muffin! I am excited about that. Anyway, I think it might have been a failure since I didn't really stick to the recipe. I couldn't find a corn muffin recipe that I liked so I adapted Cooks Illustrated simple muffin recipe by adding a cup of corn meal instead of flour. I think I might have to actually search for a corn muffin recipe. But I wanted to stick with a southern theme having made peach preserve and all. And what is more southern than homemade corn muffins and peach preserve?! At least my co-workers liked them. Kyle, Jess, and David each had two. So that fat princessing of my co-workers begins.Muahaha. Hopefully they won't know what hit them. Particularly as fall comes around and I can make stuff with pumpkin and butternut squash and cinnamon and apples. Oh how Fall is my favorite season.

So here are the recipes. The boyfriend is in town this coming weekend so I think we will both be blogging about the same things. Im thinking we will try making some flat bread and hummus. Perhaps also some homemade pizza or a ricotta and summer squash and tomato gallette. Yum!


Dill and Garlic Chicken
- 5 pound chicken
-healthy bunch of fresh dill
-8 cloves of garlic
-olive oil
-salt
-pepper

1. chop dill and garlic and mix together in bowl with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
2. rub mixture all over and inside of chicken
3. roast chicken for 2 hrs and 15 minutes at 375 or until internal temp. is 165 degrees
4. take out, cool, and eat!

Corn Muffins with Peach Preserve Filling
From Cooks Illustrated

Makes 1 dozen large muffins (I got 15 muffins out this recipe, but I think my muffin tins might be a bit smaller). Published January 1, 1997.
Remember, if you're short on time, you can melt the butter, mix it with the eggs, and stir it into the dry ingredients. When thoroughly mixed, beat in the yogurt and proceed with the recipe. To cinnamon-coat muffin tops, dip warm muffins in melted butter, then in mixture of one-half cup granulated sugar and two teaspoons cinnamon.
Ingredients
- 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon table salt
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar , less 1 tablespoon
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups plain low-fat yogurt
Vegetable cooking spray or additional unsalted butter for muffin tins
Instructions
1. Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl; set aside.

2. Beat butter and sugar with electric mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in one-half of dry ingredients. Beat in one-third of yogurt. Beat in remaining dry ingredients in two batches, alternating with yogurt, until incorporated.

3. Spray twelve-cup muffin tin with vegetable cooking spray or coat lightly with butter. Use large ice cream scoop to divide batter evenly among cups. Bake until muffins are golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes. Set on wire rack to cool slightly, about 5 minutes. Remove muffins from tin and serve warm. (I put a spoonful of my peach preserves about 5 or 8 minutes into the baking process. I think you could wait a bit longer, maybe around 10.)