I typically don’t make whole chickens, but once in a blue
moon I do. I’m more of a white meat kind
of girl – but since my boyfriend likes legs and wings the bird doesn’t go to
waste. We happened to be given a whole
chicken, so I decided to whip together a dinner that could have been straight
out of a Martha Steward magazine.
I cleaned out the chicken carcass, rinsed it down with
water, and then put it into a basket which I had set inside of a casserole pan.
This way the grease could drip from the meat and the air could evenly circulate
around the bird crisping it all up … instead of crisping the top and leaving
the rest a greasy, soggy mess. I went
into the cabinet and concocted a dry rub mixture, adding salt, black pepper,
garlic powder, Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb seasoning, McCormick chicken
seasoning, Trader Joe’s 21 seasoning salute, and oregano into a bowl. I mixed
it together then evenly rubbed it over the skin (top and bottom), then separated
the skin from the meat and rubbed the seasoning over the meat as well. I stuffed a medium quartered onion into the
cavity and popped it all into a 350 degree oven and baked it for roughly 1 ½ hours.
I cut some washed yellow skinned potatoes into chunks and
put them into a pot of salted water. When
the chicken had 30 minutes left to cook I put my potatoes onto boil. I didn’t
peel my potatoes because the skin is about as thick as red skinned potatoes. Plus
I like my mashed potatoes with skin on them. I mashed them up with a teaspoon
of margarine, some skim milk, salt and pepper.
I had some French style frozen green beans from Trader Joe’s.
I took half the bag and defrosted them
in the microwave, drained the water from them, then tossed them with minced
garlic. I then popped the green beans onto a non-stick baking sheet, which was
coated with non-stick cooking spray and roasted them off in the oven for about
10 minutes.
Since I had some fresh tomatoes and cucumbers from the
garden, I decided to chop them up and make a childhood favorite – tomato, onion
and cucumber salad. It’s simply pickling cucumbers, sliced, tomatoes sliced or
quartered and scallions that are chopped. Before serving I simply toss it with
1 tablespoon of the dressing of my or my guests’ choice.
At dinner time I heated up some canned chicken gravy and
opened a small can of jellied cranberry sauce. It was literally like
Thanksgiving dinner … and what’s even better was it was delicious WITHOUT my
beloved stuffing.
My whole plate for dinner was 10 points plus!
QUESTION:
Do you like Thanksgiving-esque dinners?
