That is the comment the Man had about last night's dinner. Quite a compliment I think.
On Sunday I was going to put a roast chook on in the sc, but chickened out (sorry about the pun..) from leaving it home alone all day (since we were going out, and had no idea when we would be back), so I had to roast it yesterday. I bought myself some oven bags, as I had heard they are a good thing (food turns out beautiful and your oven stays clean - bonus). The sc recipe I was going to use was from the sc thread #1, posted by beej22 (thank you beej!), which required French Onion soup mix (you know, the powdered stuff) to be rubbed in all over the chicken. Anyway, here is what I did for last night's dinner (and bear in mind, all that was left was one chicken breast, between the Man and I- Bug hardly ate, and the Boy was at his Mum's!):
OMG That's Fabulous Roast Chicken
1.6kg chicken, cleaned and dried inside and out
1 packet low salt French Onion soup mix
1/2 cup water
1 "regular size" Glad oven bag
Preheat oven to 150c (mine is fan forced, so 170 otherwise). This is a must when using oven bags apparently.
Put chicken in oven bag, and sprinkle soup mix over chicken as evenly as possible, top and bottom, rubbing in well. Put chicken breast side up in bag. Slowly pour in water (trying not to wash the soup mix off the chicken), and carefully tie the bag with the tie provided.
Put into oven dish, cut a few holes in the top of the bag to allow steam to escape, and into oven.
The recipe I found for cooking times said to cook for between two and three hours. Mine was in for two and a bit hours I think, and the meat literally fell off the bone, and was deliciously moist, not dry at all. When I went to pick up the chicken with tongs by putting half the tongs in the cavity and lifting (I sliced the bag open), the top breast half just came away, and the back of the chicken was left in the bag (including the wings and drumsticks! oops!). I lifted all the bits of chicken onto a plate (I put breast skin side down, which made the skin really moist), covered with foil and put back in the oven (turned off). All of the juices and bits of skin/meat that was left in the bag I scraped and drained into the oven dish, then into a saucepan for gravy. There was a bit of oil, which I absorbed off the top of the gravy once it was cooking with some kitchen paper. The recipe I found also said to spray the inside of the oven bag lightly with oil, but I forgot to do this. This probably would have stopped the skin on the drumsticks and wings from sticking to the bag a bit, but it worked out well for the gravy. The breast skin did turn out crispy, but since I turned it upside down on the plate, it went soft.
Roast Veges
4 large nadine potatoes, skin on, chopped into about 1 1/2 inch bits (or was it 5 spuds?)
3 good size carrots, skin on, chop same as above
chunk of pumpkin (think I may have used kent, not sure), chop about the same as above
frozen peas
Cook potatoes for 3 minutes on high in microwave. Add carrots, cook further 8 minutes. Shake spuds and carrots to bring any really uncooked ones up, add pumpkin, cook another four or five minutes, or until veges are cooked, but not falling apart.
Heat some oil in a large fry pan, add veges carefully when oil is hot. Sprinkle with dried mixed herbs and some salt.
Occasionally turn veges carefully so become brown and crispy on all sides.
Steam or boil peas until cooked to your liking, add mint leaves to the cooking water if you like, adds a delicious scent and light flavour to the peas (but remove before serving)
Gravy
To make the gravy, I mixed two heaped spoons of gravox traditional powder in 1/2 cup (I think, it should have been 1 cup or more, we luuurve our gravy....) cool water and mixed well, then poured into the juices. Make gravy as usual (stir over low/medium heat until thick and boiled for a couple of minutes).
I could not believe how delicious this all turned out. I am a roast novice, but the flavours of this.... OMG... Divine! Would HIGHLY recommend trying this to anyone, especially those that are fellow roast novices like myself. The Man asked for it all again for dinner tonight, and said it is the best meal ever. If you aren't worried about how the chicken looks (ie, since it all fell apart as I was taking it out of the bag), then I would say go for it. And my oven is clean! I am so proud of myself, I just had to post it on here. Not much humble pie happening here!
Thought I had another packet of the french oinion soup, but I don't, so I am trying it with a packet of the Maggi chicken cacchiatore. See how that goes. Smells good so far, its been in for one hour. I only put it in to cook at five pm, because I forgot about daylight savings. So dinner will be over an hour late. Oh well.
Ok, well the chicken still turned out delish, but I don't think the cacciatore mix was as yummy as the french onion soup. Didn't cook it for quite as long, but it still fell off the bone, and we all ate the whole chook (this one wasn't quite as big as the last either).
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My "OMG That's Fabulous Roast Chicken" & Veg
I am so proud of myself, I just had to post it on here. Not much humble pie happening here!
So dinner will be over an hour late. Oh well.
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