Bistro Beegeoux: Sunday Roast Chicken Dinner

Well, I was hoping to have had this up last week, but got started on the chicken too late – the darn things don’t cook in an hour, you know, and my organizational skills are pathetic.

As everyone seemed to enjoy the Sunday break when I shared my Cincinnati chili recipe, I thought I’d drop in one of the most classic recipes ever, and sometimes one of the hardest to pull off – a roast chicken, with a gravy hack for you. And now, with things all aflutter in the world around us at the moment, it might be nice to have something so quintessentially American in your back pocket for those occasional food moments.

And the smell filling the house when this sucker’s cooking is like Heaven on Earth, guaranteed.

So, a few notes to begin with. 

• Use the best fryer you can buy, pull all the giblets, etc., out, rinse well, and dry inside and out with paper towels
• Having it prepped while you get everything else ready will cut down a bit on the cooking time as the bird won’t be ice cold
• If they haven’t been tipped, I tuck the wings under the bird to make its own little solid base instead of using a rack
• The herb mix I use in the butter schmear is what I use for our Thanksgiving turkey, too – no ‘poultry spice’ out of a can here
• I use the convection roast setting on my oven, not that it cooks any faster, but because it helps keep the gas oven air dryer for a crisper skin

Preheat your oven to 375°, rack one slot above the center

• 9×13 roasting pan
• twine
• parchment paper (optional)

INGREDIENTS (all herb measurements to your taste)

• 1 – fryer averages 4.5 – 5 lbs
• 2T butter (I use a butter/canola mix because it spreads so easily and has a higher burn point)
• 2 fresh rosemary sprigs, with about a 1/2t nipped of one of them and chopped finely
• 1/2t dry thyme or 6-7 sprigs fresh – strip two of the sprigs
• sprinkle of rubbed sage or two finely minced fresh sage leaves
• t fresh finely chopped Italian parsley
• 1 med onion, cut in half, then large wedges
• 3-4 garlic cloves, cleaned and smashed, 1 clove pressed
• one carrot cleaned and chunked or handful of baby carrots
• salt & freshly, finely ground pepper (don’t go too crazy with the salt, as much of the herbs etc winds up in the gravy afterward)

GRAVY

• 2 Knorr roasted chicken gravy packets (I use these because they are little more than a base, almost zero flavoring, and we’ll be ADDING plenty)
• Swanson organic chicken broth

1. In a small bowl, combine parsley, sage, chopped rosemary, thyme (sound familiar at all…?), pressed clove of garlic, and butter. Add a pinch of salt and a good grind of pepper. This is your schmear.

2. The chopped onions, carrots, rosemary sprigs, thyme sprigs (if using fresh), and smashed garlic cloves are next.

2/3 of the onion, all of the carrots, one of the rosemary sprigs, and all but one of the garlic cloves got in the bottom of the roasting pan.

The remaining onion chunks, rosemary sprig, and garlic clove go into the chicken cavity, and then you can tie those legs up.

3. Settle that chicken in on top of those aromatics in the roasting pan. Use your index finger to loosen the skin over the breast on each side so you make a nice little pocket. Take your lovely herb butter and stuff a small bit into the pocket. Slide your finger over the skin to massage it well back over the breast meat and add some more if it looks like there is some room. Then hit the other side.

Then go to town on the whole bird like your dream job was being a Swedish masseuse. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the whole bird.

 

(This bird came already trussed, so that’s why the legs are tucked under.)

Step back and admire your work, and pop that sucker in the oven.

Figure on 20 minutes a pound – what you’re looking for is an internal temperature of 165° in the thickest part of the breast, and the legs should wiggle freely.

This is what happens after close on to two hours and a yummy-smelling house.

Remove le poulet to a carving board to rest and don’t tent him if you want crispy skin. He’ll stay plenty warm. 

As you can see in the picture above, I’ve already prestaged my favoritest gravy saucepan in the world with a strainer and cheesecloth liner so I don’t waste any time.

GRAVY TIME

1. I take another small bowl (like a Pyrex or Fireking custard bowl), pour off the fat and juices that are in the pan, and pop them in the fridge or freezer first. The fat will begin to congeal, and I can separate it from the pan yummies on the bottom of the little dish

2. Take about a half a cup of the chicken broth and pour it into the roasting pan. Make sure you gently work it all over those veggies and get all the yummies off the paper (or the pan if you didn’t line it).

3. Then pour it through the cheesecloth into the saucepan. Squeeze the goodness out of those vegetables, too, as you get to the end.

4. Get the bowl out of the fridge and spoon off and discard as much of the fat from the top as you can – you don’t want to lose any of that lovely stuff on the bottom. Pour it through the cheesecloth into the saucepan as well.

5. Add two cups of chicken stock to what you have in the saucepan and whisk in the two Knorr packages. Slowly heat it up and check the seasonings. 

Sometimes it can be a little salty, and a splash more chicken broth can mitigate that without thinning the gravy too much.

The chicken’s all rested.

Turn the husband loose who’s been standing there with a knife at the ready for the past twenty minutes.

And eat.

Like I said, we were in a mad rush last week, so we went real simple, but you could do it up with all the veggies and fixin’s.

This feeds us for a week, and that gravy makes a killer chicken pot pie if I have time to put one together. If in a rush, hot chicken sammiches. Nothing simpler.

I’ll put the chicken in a large enough Tupperware box to keep it moist, and it’s fabulous for pesto and pasta, pizzas, added to a frittata, whatever you want to do with it. And absolutely divine chicken sammiches. 

You can’t go wrong.

Thanks for stopping by the Bistro.