The Chicken Files

When I was living in Montreal, the local Provigo occasionally had chicken sales... Why buy one or two breasts for $10 when I could buy a whole chicken for $5? You better believe I bought a lot of those $5 chickens... But how do I make use of a whole chicken for one person?

I toyed with lots of ideas... should I do a spice rub? I found an interesting recipe for an African-style roast chicken using butter, turmeric and other spices. Or I could boil the chicken in water with whole lemons and make a Persian style lemon soup? But when it comes to chicken, it boils down to this: my ultimate comfort food is a good, ole fashioned roast chicken with gravy. That's it.

Before I lived by myself, I'd never roast a chicken. This was my mom's job. I always made the stuffing, but the chicken was her domain. So I had to email her to get her recipe, or rather, method (since simple roast chicken really isn't a recipe). She gave me her 'secret' instructions and roast I did. My chicken was so good, I think it should have won a prize. Now, I have no one to collaborate my story, since I invited my roommate and a friend but no one came to eat with me... So I got to enjoy a roast chicken, gravy, stuffing, and mashed potatoes all by myself... for three days straight.

Mom's Roast Chicken Dinner:

one chicken

some butter

chicken stock

flour

water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Place the chicken in a roasting pan. If it's not trussed, truss it up! (And if you don't know how, go here.) Rub the chicken with butter and place a pat or two inside the chicken's cavity. Cover with tin foil and bake for about an hour. After an hour, take the tin foil off, pour about 3/4 of a cup chicken stock into the pan. Return the chicken to the oven and roast for another 30 minutes or so, until the chicken is nicely browned. To check if it's done: take the pan out of the oven. With a sharp knife, poke the skin by the chicken thigh. If the juices that run out are clear, the chicken is ready. If the juices are cloudy, continue cooking.

Remove the chicken from the pan and place it on a serving platter, tented with aluminum foil.

To make the gravy:

Stir about 1/3 of a cup of flour with some water to make a thick slurry. Place the roasting pan on the stove top and add some more chicken stock to the juices to make an appropriate amount of gravy. Turn on a burner and using a spoon, scrape the bits of skin off the bottom of the pan. When the pan has reached a boil, slowly pour the slurry into the broth, rapidly stirring to avoid lumps. When the gravy is the desired consistency, season with salt and pepper and remove from the heat. You can strain the gravy if you like to remove any lumps or bits of skin (or leave them in, as I like to).

Serve with whatever side dishes you want. And don't throw out the chicken carcass! I'll tell you what I did with mine in a later post (I am penniless after all!).