Good Gravy!

The key to making a good gravy is simplicity!

When you take your roasted chicken out of the oven, remove the chicken and place the whole pan on your stove-top burners. My roasting pan takes up two vertical burners, and I put the heat on medium.
Add some flour. I don't measure so it's hard to say exactly how much, but a safe bet would be to add 1/4 cup of flour at a time. Whisk it with the pan drippings and scrape up the bits stuck to the pan with a wire whisk. Sometimes my bird leaves me with a lot of juices, sometimes not much, so depending on how much juice is there you may need to add water.

That's it! You just use the juices on the bottom of the roasting pan and some flour. Water if necessary. The seasonings from the bird usually make the drippings for the gravy flavorful enough, but if you want to add salt and pepper you can do that too.

Pour this gravy over some mashed potatoes and your chicken if you wish and you'll be in heaven!

Roasted Chicken

Below you'll find my two favorite Roasted Chicken recipes. The first is so amazingly good, but the second is pretty darn good too, and it's faster. You'll definitely have to try both recipes. I found them both on my favorite recipe site www.allrecipes.com.

I'll be posting some great recipes soon for what you can do with that leftover chicken you have from these fabulous roasted chickens.

Roast Sticky Chicken-Rotisserie Style

This recipe takes a while, but it's soooo worth it! If you don't have the extra time to make this, then the recipe in the post below is yummy too. But you have to at least try this one. It's the best in my opinion!

Ingredients

• 4 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon white pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 2 onions, quartered
• 2 (4 pound) whole chickens

Directions

1. In a small bowl, mix together salt, paprika, onion powder, thyme, white pepper, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and garlic powder. Remove and discard giblets from chicken. Rinse chicken cavity, and pat dry with paper towel. Rub each chicken inside and out with spice mixture. Place 1 onion into the cavity of each chicken. Place chickens in a resealable bag or double wrap with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight, or at least 4 to 6 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C).
3. Place chickens in a roasting pan. Bake uncovered for 5 hours, to a minimum internal temperature of 180 degrees F (85 degrees C). Let the chickens stand for 10 minutes before carving.

Juicy Roasted Chicken

I really like this roasted chicken recipe. It's not only fast and super simple, but it's oh so good!

Ingredients

• 1 (3 pound) whole chicken, giblets removed
• salt and black pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon onion powder, or to taste
• 1/2 cup margarine, divided
• 1 stalk celery, leaves removed

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Place chicken in a roasting pan, and season generously inside and out with salt and pepper. Sprinkle inside and out with onion powder. Place 3 tablespoons margarine in the chicken cavity. Arrange dollops of the remaining margarine around the chicken's exterior. Cut the celery into 3 or 4 pieces, and place in the chicken cavity.
3. Bake uncovered 1 hour and 15 minutes in the preheated oven, to a minimum internal temperature of 180 degrees F (82 degrees C). Remove from heat, and baste with melted margarine and drippings. Cover with aluminum foil, and allow to rest about 30 minutes before serving.