I made a roaster chicken tonight trying to clean out the freeze for the year.
I had a little left over fresh thyme a half lemon some carrot, celery, onion and some season salt, pepper and butter, stuffed the cavity and put it in the oven
I also made some fried potatoes with a little bacon and onion. So of course there has to be gravy.
I am a homemade gravy kind of gal because it’s truly one of the easiest things to make….fat, flour and stock, that’s it! (and a little cream, it just makes everything taste better)
Chicken came out of the oven, potatoes are done and gravy is ready.
My husband takes the first bite and then another and looks at me kind of funny “What did you do to the gravy?”
I make a mean gravy, it is unrivaled. Even by my ex-mother-in-law who is still the best cook I know.
“Nothing” Thinking he can make his own damn gravy from now on if he doesn’t like it!
Now I’m glaring at him as he takes 2 more bites
“This gravy tastes’ different” he says “This is the best gravy you’ve ever made, what did you do different?”
My husband is not overly giving with compliments so when I came out of my faint…..Just kidding.
I tasted the gravy and it was amazing! Even more amazing than my best amazing Christmas gravy!
So what did I do different?
All the ingredients I stuffed into the bird, butter, lemon, thyme, carrot, onion, celery, salt and pepper all leached down to the broth, as it should.
And I had just made fresh butter…..That was the difference. Farm fresh butter.
The butter and lemon and thyme is absolutely, positively, unbelievably delicious!
Best gravy ever!
This ones going into the family cookbook.
Gravy Recipe:
4 Tbs Fresh butter
3 Tbs flour
1 1/2 cup warm stock
1-2 Tbs heavy cream
Melt butter and add flour stirring with a whisk for 1-2 minutes to get the flour taste out.
Add Stock until desired consistency, turn off heat and add cream stirring until blended well. Salt and pepper to taste.
Gravy
I ran out to take some pictures and this was all that was left….And there were no potatoes left, sorry.
Chicken Fryer recipe:
1 chicken fryer
1 carrot chopped
1 rib of celery roughly chopped
1 large onion roughly chopped
1 lemon cut into quarters
1 bunch of fresh thyme
2 Tbs butter
1 tsp seasoning salt
1/2 pepper
1 c water
Put celery, onion and carrot on bottom of medium dutch over,
Put chicken on top of vegetables. Stuff cavity of bird with thyme and lemon
Rub skin of chicken with butter, salt and pepper add water to bottom, cover and put into a pre-heated oven of 375 for 1 to 11/2 hours.
Enjoy!
~Real housewives of Maine
Real housewives of Maine 