Comfort Food at Its Finest: A Roast Chicken Dinner

What a perfect night for a roast chicken dinner! When I woke up this morning, the back deck looked like this:

To be fair, I had already planned the dinner menu a few days ago. Since I'm still off from school, I figured it might be one of the last days for a while that I could just relax and relish cooking for the better part of the afternoon and evening. Jeff and I haven't made a roast chicken in over two years, so the first task was finding a recipe; I finally settled on Pioneer Woman's (in part because the tone of her blog always makes me giggle). Next, I checked out our fridge to see what was left over that I could use up for a side dish, and I quickly spied the challah bread that we had used for our Christmas morning French toast. After a Google search and some recipe browsing, I settled on this Challah Slow Cooker Stuffing--after all, I'd actually be home to start the slow cooker at 3PM! I initially thought the final component would be roasted root vegetables, but then I decided that would be too starchy with the stuffing, so I settled on simple Steamed Green Beans with Lemon. And then, at some point in the afternoon as the stuffing started smelling delicious, I decided to add one more final component: homemade gravy. With all the recipes lined up in my browser, I set off to work!

(Since I pretty much followed these recipes as written, I'm not going to write them out here--if you're interested in trying them out, you can just follow the links above. However, I did note anywhere that I made modifications, additions, or subtractions.)

Stuffing components ready to go!

First up was the stuffing, since it would take 4 1/2 hours in the slow cooker. Assembling all the ingredients took a bit longer than expected, but I had the time. I made a few changes; I added half of a Granny Smith apple (because it was sitting in the fridge), eliminated the marjoram and celery (because I didn't have any), and used all dried herbs (what I had on hand). I started off thinking I would half the recipe (since I had about a half loaf of challah), but it still filled my entire Crock Pot. As the recipe says, I checked it every hour to stir and add chicken stock as necessary--do be careful of adding too much liquid (mine ended up a bit wet).

Since Jeff was home by the time the chicken needed to be prepped, I enlisted his help--and it was well worth it for the entertainment alone! A few modifications here: I decreased the (definitely-needs-to-be-softened) butter to 1/2 cup (unsalted), used 2 1/2 lemons in the "cavity," and roasted it in a baking dish (rather than on a baking pan). Since I had a 5-pound bird, I roasted it for 90 minutes at 425 degrees, then took it out and let it rest for 20 minutes with an aluminum foil cover over it.

Once the chicken had come out and was resting, I started the green beans while Jeff worked on the gravy. I actually decided to use haricots verts (which are a bit thinner and more delicate). Since I wanted them to be a bit al dente, I steamed them for just four minutes. When they were done, I squeezed the juice of a lemon over the cooked haricots verts, added a little salt, and topped them with toasted slivered almonds (that I'd toasted for about two minutes in our toaster oven).

Meanwhile, Jeff was busy using the chicken drippings to make homemade gravy. He added a cup of chicken stock to the roasting dish, scraped up the drippings, and then transferred that liquid to a saucepan. Seperately, I mixed together 1/4 cup of flour with just enough water to make it thick, which Jeff then whisked into the drippings/stock mixture over low heat until it thickened. By then, the chicken was ready for carving.

The final plates looked and smelled absolutely delicious--we couldn't wait to dig in!

Which is exactly what Jeff did!

And the best part? Plenty of leftovers for the weekend! The next project is for me to learn how to use my Crock Pot to make homemade chicken stock with the carcass...