Fabulous Roasted Chicken and an Anniversary

My husband and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary a few weeks ago,wow I can’t believe it two years, seems like just yesterday. I know how cliched that sounds but really it does, and my bff Karen  is getting married in a few days, so all this planning has brought it all back. It was a beautiful fall day in the Berkshires and I would do all over again in a heartbeat!!! Here’s a little peek:

  

The amazing view overlooking the Berkshires… 

 

  Me in my mothers 40 year old dress that my grandmother took great lengths to preserve!! 

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Our amazing cake by Something Sweet by Michelle

We usually go out to dinner to celebrate milestones like birthdays and anniversaries, but I thought instead it would be nice to invite my parents and my hubby’s mom over to our house for a nice family dinner. The only time we could all manage to get together before my parents jetted off to Vegas ( lucky devils) was on a Tuesday and of course I had to work. I thought I was going to get out a bit earlier than I did and so that threw off my whole menu or so I thought. I had my heart set on making “my version” of my mothers Roasted Chicken. I used to be scared to make Roasted chicken, burnt skin, pale skin, undercooked, overcooked the possibilities were endless. If I hadn't watched mom all those years and paid careful attention to her technique I could never do it on my own. Well since I was so crunched for time, when I got to the supermarket I decided to get chicken pieces instead, really a win win situation because some people like dark meat some, people like white meat, some both, and guess what unless you get a ginormous chicken there is never enough of each to go around.  So I grabbed some thighs, legs and some split chicken breasts. I prepared the chicken pieces as I would a whole chicken and holy smokes did it come out good. You know those times when you say why didn’t I make this sooner , yay this was one of those times.

Roasted Chicken

Items Needed:

Large Skillet

2 Baking dishes

Blender 

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Bake time: 45 –55 minutes

• 4 split Chicken Breasts
• 4 Thighs
• 4 Legs
• 12 fresh thyme sprigs
• 12 fresh sage leaves
• 6-8 rosemary sprigs, cut each in half
• butter, 12 tbsp + 2 tbsp
• medium onion, quartered
• orange, halved and quartered
• salt
• pepper
• chicken broth
• maple syrup
• olive oil

• Rinse chicken and pat dry, carefully pull up skin than place a small sprig each of rosemary, thyme, and sage than season generously with salt and pepper all over
• Heat skillet over medium high heat and brown chicken, skin side first in batches until nicely browned removing to the baking dishes

• Place 1/2 the onions and oranges around the chicken, and six tbsp butter into each baking dish, and drizzle everything with a little bit of olive oil

  

• At the 30 minutes mark check the chicken to make sure not getting to browned
• After 45 minutes, check temperature of each piece to make sure cooked thru, remove chicken to platter and tent with foil and let rest while making gravy
• Squeeze cooked orange wedges into baking dish to get out remaining juice then discard the oranges wedges, pour the remaining onions, juices, and 1/2 c chicken broth into the blender, pour some maple syrup into a measuring cup up to 1/4 c ( use as much or as little as you like ) we used almost all of it, blend everything until smooth, than pour into small sauce pan and bring to a boil adding last 2 tbsp of butter**** Optional, depending on how rich you want the gravy!!
• Slice up chicken breasts before serving

Look at how juicy the chicken is Yummy!!!

Eat and Enjoy!!!