Roast Chicken
Tonight was a very simple roast chicken. At a little past 3 this afternoon I still had no idea what to make for dinner but did know that I had a chicken in the fridge that I should cook up. I took out the chicken and trimmed off all the fat I could then rinsed it and set it to brine (1/2 cup salt, a few garlic slices, some thyme in one cup boiling water until salt disolves, then add mixture to 1 gallon ice water) for an hour. While it brined I prepared the last of the fresh green beans I had, peeled 2 huge russet potatoes and cut them into large pieces. I put the green beans in to steam and put the potatoes in a large bowl with some olive oil, salt, pepper and a little mashed garlic. I set the oven to 425 and let it pre-heat while I made a simple stuffing for the chicken (see the stuffing recipe). After the bird was stuffed I put it into a roasting pan surrounded by the potatoes and then brushed a little olive oil on the bird, I set the pan in the oven for about 90 minutes. It came out with a lovely crisp skin, the breast meat was very moist because of the brining and the potatoes were heaven, light and very crisp. The shame of it was that hubby got called out to work all day and night so he missed probably one of the best tasting roast chickens I have ever done, I shared it with our 3 ShihTzus and the crazy cat……….they loved it as much as I did. It was a quick non fussy dinner and was done in a little more than 90 minutes. Proof that you can make a decent meal without hanging out over your stove all day!
Mattie