A Sunday Dinner

There is something wonderful about a Sunday dinner.  Family gathered around the table, sometimes friends, too, sharing the best parts of the weekend, planning the week ahead.  This past weekend’s dinner was no exception, made all the more beautiful after a sun filled warm weekend.

The Menu: Roasted Chicken, Roasted Potatoes and Sautéed Zucchini.

The Process: I am a big fan of the organic chicken from Costco, they come two to a pack and freeze well.  I rinse one, pat it dry then put in a pan.  I coat the inside with a salt and coarsely ground pepper and then stuff it with a lemon cut in half, a garlic bulb cut in half (so all the cloves are showing like a flower) about 10 sprigs of thyme.  Be sure to pre heat the oven to 350.  I often forget this part, but it is important.

I mix up a paste of three tablespoons of softened or melted unsalted butter, three tablespoons of olive oil, a tablespoon of kosher salt (always Kosher and I’ll talk about that another time) and a tablespoon of pepper.

The outside of the chicken gets rubbed with about half of this mixture and then with the breast side down it goes into the oven.  The other half of the mixture gets tossed around quartered potatoes.  I am a big fan of the white potatoes, but red ones are good, too.  Mixing them up is nice, too.  Me, I’m not so fond of the fingerlings, but if you are, go for it.  Use a non stick baking pan for the potatoes, trust me, it makes a huge difference.  Oh, and if you think of it, which I didn’t last night, which is why we had zucchini, peel and quarter an onion to toss into the mix and throw in some carrots.

And, for a really special treat you’ll want to peel whole cloves of garlic but don’t toss these into the roasting pan right away.

The chicken will need to roast for at least an hour if it is a small one, but the ones I get from Costco take an hour and a half.  No basting necessary, but the potatoes will need to be stirred up every twenty minutes so that they brown on all sides.  You’ll want to put the garlic in when there is about 40 minutes remaining.

When the chicken is ready to come out of the oven it should rest for at least 10 minutes on a carving board, preferably with a moat to catch the inevitable juices but 15-20 is even better.  Cover it with a bit of tin foil to keep it warm.  Keep the potatoes in the oven but turn the heat off so they don’t over cook.

How about some gravy?  Especially because it is so easy and really shouldn’t be reserved just for Thanksgiving dinner.  All you have to do is empty the roasting pan of the melted fat into a separator (a bowl will work, too) but don’t scrape the pan clean and put it onto the stove top over a medium flame.  If you have chicken broth on hand use it, if not, water will do, but it won’t be as rich in flavor.  Bring the liquid (a little more than you will want to fill a saucer) to a simmer and the bits that stuck to the pan will come up easily, which you want. 

In a separate bowl, mix up a few tablespoons of flour with cold water making sure that there are few to no clumps.   Slowly pour in this mixture all the while stirring with a whisk and incorporating everything until is shows signs of thickening.  At this point that reserved fat that has risen to the top of the separator or bowl should be poured off and discarded but the yummy bits at the bottom of the bowl or gravy separator should be added to the gravy.  Allow the gravy to simmer for 5 minutes stirring occasionally and voila, you have gravy. 

Since I forgot to put the carrots and onions in with the potatoes last night I sliced up four zucchini and minced four cloves of garlic.  When the chicken was resting I heated up the garlic in olive oil until it was just starting to brown.  I like a crispy crunchy garlic, if you aren’t a fan just don’t let it get to that point but do allow it to soften in the heat for a minute or two so it mellows in flavor.  I then throw in the zucchini and about a teaspoon of salt into the pan and toss it all about every three minutes.  I also like a browned zucchini so I tend to use a high heat and it takes about 7 minutes, but a lower heat will do just fine if you are afraid it might burn.

My husband does the carving, our daughter sets the table and I serve either from the stove top or from the table depending on how many dishes I want to do that night.  We sit down at the table and everyone holds hands for grace which is a long standing tradition we adopted from my husbands family.  It goes like this,

“I’m glad we’re all together. 

And I am.

This post comes from It's What We're Having -- a resource for food, recipes and meals.