Rotisserie Chicken and Acorn Squash

A big arctic cold front hit the country last week and it was really cold in Portland; our lowest overnight temperature at the house was 10 degrees and highs in the 20s. I'm sure places like the Dakotas and Chicago deal with this cold for longer stretches but for us it was a significant event. Finally on Thursday the weather started to turn and we got our normal December mid-40s and light rain.

Friday the forecast called for an end to the showers and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to make a rotisserie chicken.

I did a dry brine on the chicken by sprinkling some kosher salt on it, in the cavity and under the skin on the breasts. Ideally, I'd let it sit in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours, but 4 hours would have to do today. You can find my recipe here.

A chicken on the rotisserie last summer.

Chicken hot off the Weber rotisserie.

 A couple of weeks ago I ran across a recipe for acorn squash in a pressure cooker from Dad Cooks Dinner.  So dinner was set! I halved two acorn squashes and scooped out the seeds. Then sprinkled some salt and baking soda, put in a basket and into the pressure cooker with a scant 1 cup water. I cooked under high pressure for 20 minutes; it might have been a bit much as they pretty much came apart in the pot.

Cook the squash under high pressure for 20 minutes

Then scoop the squash out of the skins and mix with butter, brown sugar and nutmeg.

Ready for mashing with butter, brown sugar and nutmeg

Mashed and ready to serve

Dinner is served

It was a nice dinner; better tasting and better for us than the pizza I was thinking about ordering.