Saturday, March 21, 2009

Comfort Food - Roast Chicken Dinner

Since I've been out-of-town for work all week, and eating either room service or at restaurants, I was hungry for a good old-fashioned home-cooked meal. One of my favorite comfort foods is roast chicken. Add mashed potatoes, corn and gravy, and it's a dinner that cannot be beat in my book! I tried the pre-salting method on the chicken and was very happy with the results. I didn't add anything else to the chicken before roasting - I prefer the high-heat roasting method, which consists of placing the chicken in a shallow roasting pan, into a 500 F. oven, checking that the chicken is not sticking to the pan at 10 minutes, and then again in about another 15 minutes. For a small roasting chicken of about 3 pounds, another 25 minutes in the oven is sufficient, then remove from the oven and let rest about 10 minutes before slicing.

I used a quart of homemade chicken stock for the gravy and then seasoned it with salt & pepper, fresh chopped parsley and thyme. I think that was the best gravy I've ever made. (Tip: For lump-free gravy, strain through a sieve before seasoning, and you'll end up with the smoothest gravy ever!!)

Simple mashed potatoes and corn from the freezer rounded out the dinner plate. I'm contented enough to face another week out-of-town! More real cooking next weekend!

8 comments:

  1. this is a fav of mine too~

    hey we never got to see any room service?!

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  2. The room service pictures were horrible. :-/ I do have a story I'll post about when we were taken out to a really nice restaurant by the partner that came to visit from Wash, DC. We had a private dining room and the chef/owner came in to talk to us a couple of times. It was wonderful... but I'll save the details for later! :D

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  3. I don't want to repeat myself..But you sure know how to look after a good meal !

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  4. Lori...this looks fabulous!
    A feast !
    Missed you last week!
    L~xo

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  5. For me that is the perfect dinner. "Gourmet comfort" food

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  6. The roast chicken dinner just warms my heart and soul just by looking at it...YUM-O

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  7. Your picture of this meal looks absolutely delicious! Thanks for the blog.

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  8. That looked tasty...

    If I can offer a suggestion, although I don't know if that'll alter the taste... Place some carrots under the chicken in the pan (think how the Egyptians moved stone blocks). Then the chicken won't stick. :)

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