Oven Roasted Chicken

Tonight’s menu: Oven Roasted Chicken, Mashed Potatoes & Gravy, and Corn.  It’s a classic Midwest meal.  It’s also an EASY meal!

Here’s what you’ll need:
1 whole chicken (the size that you purchase will vary the cooking time; I usually go for the 4-5 lb chickens so that I can use the leftovers to make another dish)
Seasonings of your choice (I use some poultry seasoning and a little salt & pepper)
6 red potatoes (peeled or unpeeled - I like to leave the skins on them to give more texture to my dish)
3 Tbsp butter
1/2 c milk
1/4 c corn starch
3/4 c lukewarm water
1 (15.5 oz) can of corn - or frozen if you’d like!

Rinse chicken off throughly in sink. Place in a dutch oven and sprinkle with seasonings. Bake at 350 degrees for about 2 hours (for a 4-5 lb chicken).

Place potatoes in a large pan and cover with water. Bring to a gentle boil and maintain for about 30 minutes or until tender. Drain, but reserve the potato water from the pan. (You may need to add it to your gravy later). Add butter and milk to potatoes and either hand-mash or use a hand blender to mix.

As for the gravy… your chicken has baked. Remove the chicken from the pan and place on a serving platter. There should be a fair amount of juices left in the bottom of your dutch oven. If the bottom doesn’t have at least 1 inch of drippings, then add some potato water to increase the amount of gravy that you’ll yield. Heat on your stove top on a medium-high heat until it comes to a strong simmer. In a small mixing bowl, mix together water and corn starch with a whisk. Add slowly to dutch oven, whisking mixture the whole time. Simmer until desired consistency, stirring constantly.

And the corn is easy - - follow the directions on the packaging!