Ryan's Chicken

This weekend was a kinda a crapshoot except for the wonderful whole chicken recipe that our friend Ryan gave us. Amongst the Roter Rooter guys tracking mud through my house, Tim's 4 hour long stint in the basement with sewer water, and my fall down our back stairs I learned how to cook my first whole chicken. It was another one of those cooking hurdles (like bread making) that I had to go through with someone else to feel comfortable about. It was really pretty easy, but I was definitely glad to have Ryan's instructions as well as a little Guitar Hero to distract me while the pipes were clanging below. We were so tired at the end of the day that Ryan ended up serving us the dinner. What an amazing friend! Here's Ryan's simple recipe.

Ryan's Chicken

-One 4-5lb chicken

-2-3 celery stocks, roughly chopped

-2 onions, roughly chopped

-3-4 carrots, roughly chopped

-3-4 garlic cloves

-Olive oil

-Salt and Pepper

-Herbs: we had rosemary and thyme on hand.

Pre-heat oven to 250. Put a couple of swigs of oil in a dutch oven or some other bake able pot and turn heat to medium. Add garlic and sautee for about a minute. Add veggies and herbs and sautee for a minute. Add chicken breast side down and cook for 8 minutes. Flip chicken and cook for another 8 minutes. This will color the chicken. Place foil on top of the pot and cover with lid to make a tight seal. Cook at 250 for about 2 hours or until the chicken juices run clear. Pull chicken out of pot and let rest for about 10 minutes. Pour chicken juices (sans veggies) into a sauce pot, and boil. Add a roux or cornstarch and make gravy. Add a little chix stock if need to "beef up" the gravy volume. Serve the chicken with roasted garlic mashers and gravy all over everything. De-lish!