What could be better than a nice roasted chicken for a Sunday night family dinner? The house smells great, the food is comforting, and the leftover carcass is a future soup in the making. To me, a roasted chicken is one of the most perfect things to cook and eat. And it's easy as well.
Pretty much any chicken you get at the supermarket can go right into a roasting pan for cooking, but if you want want to be extra succulent, you could try brining it for a day in advance. The simplest thing to do is to fill a pot with cold water, add 2-3 tablespoons of kosher salt, stir to dissolve, and soak the chicken in it overnight. You could also add all sort of herbs like rosemary, thyme and sage, some crushed garlic, peppercorns, or a lemon, cut into quarters, squeezed, and added into the brine. The key is to let the salty water soak into the meat fibers, breaking it down and making even more tender.
When it's done soaking, rinse if off, inside and out, and place it in a roasting dish that you've lined with sliced onions, carrots and celery, drizzled with a little olive oil and dash of salt (this will make an amazing base for your gravy).
I like to stuff the internal cavity of the chicken with a quartered lemon, a head of garlic cut in half, through the cloves, and some sprigs of fresh rosemary, thyme, sage and/or parsley.
On an optional basis, you could also slip thin slices of lemon under the skin of the chicken (breast, thighs and legs) and/or rosemary sprigs for extra flavor.
On the top, I simply sprinkle a little salt, pepper and herbs de provence. No need for olive oil -- the skin has plenty of fat built in.
Place the chicken in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes per pound. When time is up, gently pull the leg/thigh away from the breast and if the juices run clear, it's cooked through.
Remove the chicken from the roasting pan, and cover it with foil, letting it rest while you make the gravy.
Remove the veggies from the bottom of the pan, and add about 1 cup of warm water to the pan and use it to scrap up all the browned bits of meat and veggies from the pan. Pour this thru a sieve and into a sauce pot, and to it, add a mixture of 1/2 cup water and 3 tablespoons of Wondra flour. Stir this together, adding a dash of Gravy Master or Kitchen Bouquet if needed to darken up the gravy. Taste for salt and pepper, adding what's needed. Let it sit for a minute or two off the heat, and skim off the excess fat before serving.
Now you can carve and serve the chicken, with the gravy on the side.
And don't you dare throw out the carcass -- be sure to use it for your next pot of soup or broth!
Delicious!!!!!!
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