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!