Thursday Night Supper: Roasted chicken and fixin's!

Thursday Night Supper: Herb Roasted Chicken, Scalloped Potatoes, Steamed Broccoli, Buttered Brussell Sprouts, Sage Stuffing, Garden Salad, and Fresh Rolls.

Every Thursday night, we switch off with a friend of ours, and have a “family” supper. This last Thursday was here at the house, and we had a great time. I spent the afternoon cooking, and made some delicious food! Nothing was difficult to make. The longest time consuming item was, of course, the roasted chicken. You will notice I list the chicken as a fryer chicken.  I have tried both frying chickens and “young roasting” chickens. Really can not tell a difference, and the fryers are typically $.25-.$35 a lb cheaper!

Roast Chicken

1 Frier Chicken
½ stick butter
2 tbspn Italian Seasoning
2-3 cloves garlic
1 tsp garlic salt
1tsp black pepper
1 large onion, cut in half

Defrost the chicken enough to clean, and pull out the gizzards. At the bottom of the breasts, slide your fingers up under the skin, loosening it all across the breasts. Mix the butter, Italian seasonings, and garlic together. Split the butter mix in half, and slide each half under the skin on each breast. Work it all the way up under the skin, coating the whole breast. Slide the onion into the cavity. Truss the legs together, tuck the wings under. Sprinkle the top with the garlic salt & some pepper.Bake in a 400 oven, basting about every 15 minutes, until a thermometer reads 165 degrees or higher. If it browns too quickly, cover loosely with tin foil.

Rolls

The rolls are the other time consuming item. If you have the time, let them sit for four hours to defrost. Otherwise, how I do it is much quicker. Since the oven is already heated and cooking the chicken, place 2 roll balls into each cup of a muffin tin. Make sure you have sprayed the muffin tin before hand. Place the tin on top of the stove, and allow the rolls to rise as the chicken is cooking. The heat from the oven should be plenty enoughe. Keep an eye on them, as you do not want them to rise too quickly though. If you see they are rising too quickly, move them from the stove top to the counter to rest. When the chicken has about 10 minutes left of cooking, place the rolls into the oven and bake until golden brown.

Veggies

      
1 bag frozen Brussell Sprouts
1 bag frozen Broccoli
1 box Scalloped Potatoes
1 box Stuffing

For the brocolli: place about an inch of water in a medium pot, along with a vegetable steamer wrack. Bring the water to a boil, place the brocolli in the wrack, cover and steam for 7-10 minutes. You want it hot, but not over cooked. If it cooks too long it gets mushy.

Scalloped Potatoes: prepare acording to the box instructions. I place mine on the bottom wrack while the chicken is cooking, as they take about an hour to cook. Try adding some freshly grated cheddar cheese to the mix. This makes them even cheesier, and very tasty!

Bussell Sprouts: In a medium pan, melt a half stick of butter with a tbsp of garlic salt. Add the sprouts, and simmer for about 8-10 minutes, or until cooked through.

Stuffing:

I use a boxed stuffing mix, but accentuate it with my own additions. Before making the stuffing, chop up 2 celery stalks, half a medium onion, and a clove of garlic. Toss these into a pot with about 3 tbsp olive oil, and cook for about 5-8 minutes, or until the onions are clear. Add chicken stock (as much as the box calls for water for the stuffing) and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat, add the stuffing mix, cover and let sit for 5-10 minutes. Fluff with a fork when ready to serve.

If you time everything right, it should all come together and be ready at the same time.




This is a fairly easy meal to make, and tasty too! As you can see, I doubled the porportions when I cooked, to feed 6 people, and have left overs. The extra chicken I used in the Chicken Pot Pie. THAT recipe is coming up next!