A few ways with the chicken!!

Chicken was on sale!  I went to FreshCo on Saturday (first time there, believe me it's worth the trip to Vanier, great prices, great fresh produce, good stock levels - thanks for the tip Renee).   The chickens were small but that's good because I only have 2 people to feed on a regular basis.   I decided to roast the chicken in a typical fashion of course, I've come to enjoy roasted chicken and making it - it's not that hard.  The recipe below is inspired by a few, but mostly by my good friend (ha, I wish) Jamie Oliver  (for herb inspiration and cook times), the original recipe is on his website.  This is a semi personal rendition and the most exciting part - it was the first time I did a semi-decent job carving the bird and made a semi decent homemade gravy! LOL.

Lemon Thyme Roast Chicken with Lemon wine gravy

1 3 lb (give or take) chicken

Carved bird (forgot to take a photo BEFORE
I cut into it!) :)

a bunch of fresh thyme (other herbs are good too!)

a few garlic cloves

1 large lemon

juice of a half lemon

salt and pepper

1T butter

3/4 chicken stock (also, juices from the carving board work too!)

1/2C white wine

1 scant T cornstarch

Hunger (always the best ingredient)

Butchers twine

Preheat your oven to 475 degrees, get a small roast pan with a rack ready, I generally spray this with cooking spray, makes the gravy and cleanup easier!

Here's a tip, and I think I got this from Jamie's site:  Take your bird out of the fridge about a half hour before cooking to acclimatize it.

Herb Paste:  Take a few sprigs of your thyme and remove leaves.  Press 2 small garlic cloves into a bowl, add the leaves and HALF of the lemon juice.  In a separate bowl soften your butter and add it to the herb/garlic/lemon mixture, stir until you have a runny paste.  Add a few grinds of sea salt and pepper. 



Bird Prep:  You've taken your bird out of the fridge.  Make sure if there are any inside parts to remove them.   Most people would have you wash the bird and pat dry, and you can if you want, but the oven should kill off any bacteria right??    Anyway, gently lift the skin from the breasts, thighs and legs, it's best to use your hands to do this.  Take half of your herb paste and scoop into these gaps and rub around on the left side of the bird.  Do the same on the right.   Put the skin back about where it was.    Take the remainder of your thyme and bunch it up with butchers twine.  Take your lemon and prick all over (a great tip I read and it's a good one, microwave the lemon for 40 seconds on high)  stuff the thyme, lemon, and remaining whole garlic cloves into your bird.   Take a piece of butchers twine, do up the legs (so they're not overlapping).  Tuck in the wings, put on your roast pan





Place in your preheated oven and immediately turn down the temp to 400 degrees.  Bake for 1h 20 minutes (or until a meat thermometer says it's done) It's going to smell AMAZING.  This is where the hunger ingredient comes in.

Remove from oven, place on cutting board for at least 15 minutes to settle, cover the bird up.



the whole dinner was DELISH!



The gravy:

Meanwhile remove your rack from your pan.  Skim off as much fat as possible from the juices.  Place the pan on your largest burner and turn the burner onto about medium high.  Take your wine, deglaze the brown bits off your pan and reduce for a few minutes (by about 25% or so).  Put in your lemon juice.  Add your cornstarch to your broth and whisk together.  Add to your pan and boil, continue cooking until the mixture is thickened and gravy like, stir regularly.  Add a bit of salt and pepper to taste.



Carve your bird, serve with gravy.  Excellent.

In our meal we also had a delicious 5 grain rice parsnip and carrot pilaf with roasted broccoli garlic and mushrooms topped with parmesan (if you want those recipes just ask).

WHAT OTHER WAYS DID I DO CHICKEN???

My second chicken way?  Chicken broth from the bones!! Don't waste good bones! (or good veggie ends for that matter) Google "chicken stock crock pot" and find one that you can do.  I did this in the crock overnight and this morning woke up to some delicious stock which I used to make....

Chicken Barley Veg soup!  Which I won't post the recipe for here, it's basically a chicken rice soup with barley instead of rice, and some extra veg (because i ALWAYS have extra veg).  BTW I had this for lunch and it was excellent.