For the Chicken and Stuffing<\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\nPreheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.<\/p>\n
Brush chicken with olive oil and sprinkle sea salt and pepper on the outside.<\/p>\n
Place chicken inside a roasting pan and place the lid on top, with the holes open. If you do not have a lid, place tin foil over top and make small slits\/holes in the tin foil.<\/p>\n
Roast for 1.5 hours (depending on the size of your chicken this time may need to be adjusted – times are calculated at 20 minutes per pound + 15 minutes.<\/p>\n
Take your total time and decrease it by 30 minutes as you will continue to roast the chicken at a higher heat for the last 30 minutes. For example – if your chicken takes a total of 2 hours, you will cook it for 1.5 hours in this step, and the additional 30 minutes in a later step).<\/p>\n
While the chicken is cooking, heat a large saucepan on medium heat and add 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil.<\/p>\n
Chop the celery, onion, kale, apricots, and pecans separately. Add celery and onion to the saucepan and cook until translucent. Set kale, apricots,\u00a0and pecans aside separately.<\/p>\n
Add rice, broth, bay leaf, thyme, and water to the saucepan, stir, and simmer covered for 40 minutes – checking around 30 minutes to ensure you have enough liquid. Add more water as needed to prevent burning at the bottom of the pan.<\/p>\n
Remove the saucepan lid and reduce heat slightly. Stir frequently until the remaining liquid is absorbed (approx. 5 minutes). Once absorbed, add finely chopped kale on top, place the lid back on, and allow to steam until the kale is soft. Stir into mixture.<\/p>\n
Stir in chopped apricots and pecans and remove bay leaf from the stuffing mixture and set aside, covered, until chicken is ready.<\/p>\n
When the chicken has cooked for 1.5 hours (or 30 minutes less than your calculated time) remove the lid from the roasting pan and baste the chicken using the juice from the pan. Turn oven up to 450 degrees Fahrenheit and keep roasting with the lid\/foil lid off.<\/p>\n
Mix together apricot jam, apple cider vinegar, and 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil. After the chicken has cooked for 15 minutes at the high temperature, brush the glaze (leaving some leftover) onto the chicken and roast for another 15 minutes – or as long as you need until the chicken has reached an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit (no longer pink and juices run clear).<\/p>\n
Remove the chicken from the oven once cooked, brush on some additional glaze, and let sit, covered in tin foil, for approximately 10 minutes to let the juices settle.<\/p>\n
Serve with stuffing.<\/p>\n
Enjoy!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As firefighters, maintaining our physical health and energy levels is crucial for performing at our best on duty. One key aspect of this is ensuring we fuel our bodies with nutritious and balanced meals. By following these five simple steps, we can create meals that not only taste great but also provide the essential nutrients we need to stay energized and focused throughout our shifts. Let’s explore how we can easily incorporate healthy eating habits into our busy and demanding schedules to support our overall well-being as firefighters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22228,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":false,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[59,454,6,514],"tags":[165,225,264,221],"class_list":["post-20611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-firefighter-nutrition","category-best-nutrition-firefighters","category-firefighter-fitness","category-first-responder-nutrition","tag-firefighter-fitness","tag-firefighter-health","tag-firefighter-nutrition","tag-firehouse-nutrition"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paAEPz-5mr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/firerescuefitness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/FRF-Template-Blog-Posts.png?fit=940%2C788&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/firerescuefitness.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/firerescuefitness.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/firerescuefitness.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firerescuefitness.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firerescuefitness.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20611"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/firerescuefitness.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22903,"href":"https:\/\/firerescuefitness.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20611\/revisions\/22903"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firerescuefitness.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/firerescuefitness.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firerescuefitness.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firerescuefitness.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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