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Rosemary Roast Chicken with Gravy

March 24, 2009

My aunt Barbara is the source of some of my favorite recipes: Mrs. Jones’ Macaroni & Cheese and Chocolate Chip Banana Bread. She could send me a recipe for pretty much anything, and I’d give it a go, confident that it would turn out well. Most recently she recommended this roasted chicken dish, and it did not disappoint. She wrote, “The gravy is delicious and if there is leftover gravy (which there often is), I use it for other things (like my chicken pot pie with an oat crunch crust).” Obviously, I need to get her pot pie recipe, too!

I initially planned to serve this with just some roasted Brussels sprouts and a challah, but then we added a few more people to the dinner so I added some brown rice and a quick tomato and cucumber salad with red wine vinegar and olive oil.

It felt like a holiday meal on a random Thursday! I wouldn’t go through the trouble to make a big meal like this on an ordinary night, but I love having the chance to get immersed in my cooking while the boys play with their grandma, great grandma, aunt and niece. All five adults and three kids (yes, including both boys) enjoyed the chicken. The chicken itself is somewhat plain — I think I need to season it more next time. But the addition of the pan gravy makes it really delicious.

Rosemary Roast Chicken
My Aunt Barbara’s recipe

1 whole broiler chicken
5 sprigs fresh rosemary
4 medium onions, quartered
1½ Tbsp. olive oil
8 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
salt & pepper
1 lemon, quartered
1½ c. chicken broth

Preheat oven to 450°.

Stuff chicken with a quarter of the onions (1 full onion, quartered), half the garlic, half the lemon, and all the rosemary. Rub with the outside with a half tablespoon of olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. (If you are using a kosher chicken, you can skip the salt.) Squeeze one of the remaining lemon pieces over the chicken, reserving it after it is juiced to go into the roasting pan.

Toss remaining onions, garlic, lemon pieces and oil in a 13 x 9-inch pan. Place chicken, breast side down, over vegetable mixture. Roast chicken 30 minutes. Turn chicken over, add a half cup broth to the vegetables, and roast for 45 minutes to an hour, until chicken reaches 180° on a meat thermometer.

Transfer chicken to a platter. Remove the lemon quarters. In a blender, puree ONLY the vegetable mixture from the pan (not the veggies inside the chicken) with the remaining broth and any drippings from the pan. Squeeze any juice from the roasted lemons into the gravy, and season with salt and pepper. You may want to reheat the gravy over a low flame before serving.

Serve chicken with gravy. We liked challah to sop up the gravy; my aunt recommends mashed potatoes.

Filed under: Poultry