Oven Roasted Chicken Lunches

If there is one thing that I have learned to deal with here in Denmark, it's how expensive food is compared to California. Eating out can easily cost over $100 for two at one of the less expensive restaurants in town. Lunches are especially expensive. The average price for a hamburger is around 100 kroner (about $18)! It's ridiculous. Even a simple sandwich for lunch lunch at the local cafe runs 65 kroner (about $11). Grocery store options for sack lunches are not much better. Cold cuts for two sandwiches will run you around 35 kroner ($5.50) and will make a pretty wimpy sandwich by American standards. Needless to say, we had to figure out a cheaper way to eat a delicious lunch and luckily for me, my husband loves sandwiches.

Before we moved here, I had experimented a little bit with high-temperature roasting chicken in the oven with great results. Since my husband's favorite sandwich is the chicken club, now is the perfect time to hone my chicken carving skills and prepare some freshly roasted chicken breasts and thighs for lunches. A whole chicken runs about 60 kroner ($10) which is a great deal considering a whole chicken will make lunches for both of us for the entire week. Buying just the breasts is a bit more expensive (just like in the US) so learning how to easily fabricate (the fancy kitchen term for cutting up a raw bird) a chicken is crucial. Luckily youtube has some awesome tutorials. I particularly like these two by Chefs Martin Yan and Jaquecs Pepin.



Now, I am not as fast as either of these chefs, but I can fabricate a chicken in about 15 minutes, which isn't too bad in my book.

So, starting with my whole chicken and a small paring knife, I cut down one side of the sternum between the breasts then slide my knife underneath the breast at the tip and slowly work back up to the neck to remove the tender with the breast in one piece. You will have to cut along the wishbone at the neck to separate the breast entirely. Repeat on the other breast. Then remove the wings cutting into the back to include any medallions that might still be there to get a nice meaty wing. Next, I move on to the leg, cutting along the back to include the oyster like Chef Pepin demonstrates, and cutting down the spine to remove the whole thigh and drumstick together.

When I am done, I am left with two beautiful thick breasts, two legs, two wings, and a carcass for stock. These are great on their own, but for sandwiches, I really want boneless legs to slice. So, I follow Chef Pepin's suggestions and cut along the knuckle of the thigh and drumstick, and scrape along the bone to remove as much meat as possible. His trick with cutting along the bottom of the drumstick, then grasping the bone with a [paper]towel to remove the bones from the meat is an amazingly simple way to remove the bones. Don't worry too much about being neat, once you roast the thighs, the meat sort of sticks back together and nobody will know. You end up with these two perfect boneless legs of dark meat that also work great stuffed with spinach, rice, and swiss cheese as a different take on Chicken Kiev.

Then, with the wings, cut off the little nub sticking out at the "wrist" joint and fold the wing tip over the shoulder joint to create a neat little triangle that is perfect and compact for roasting.

Now I have these wonderful boneless chicken pieces for any meal I want. But, I want to roast them for sandwiches so they go into a small roasting pan with a little seasoning on both sides. For a club sandwich I like to use a little salt, black pepper, cumin, coriander, and chipotle chile. They go into the oven at 250°C or 450°F for 35 minutes and come out moist, perfectly cooked, and with delicious crispy skin. Even if you don't plan to eat the skin, roast the meat with the skin on as a protective layer to prevent drying out.

When done, I let them cool in the roasting pan then slice thin for sandwiches. Each breast or leg will make 2-3 good sandwiches (especially if you add a couple slices of bacon, cheddar cheese, and some lettuce). Yummy!

Of course, my favorite is the wings which make a great accompaniment to a small side salad for my lunches.