Roast Chicken

Wanna make the BEST roast chicken dinner?

24 hours before meal time:

Brine:

2 Cups kosher salt
2 Cups sugar (white, brown or a combination of the two)
2 tablespoons each of Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Ground Ginger (honestly I never measure this...just eyeball it)
about 4 cups of water...maybe more

Combine all this and bring it to a boil. Watch it close because it's got a nasty tendency to foam up and boil over. Once it's come to a boil dump it in something big enough to hold a chicken and the brine then add some ice cubes (just enough to bring the brine down to below room temperature). As soon as the brine is cooled down, chuck your chicken in the brine and put the whole kit and kaboodle in the fridge.

2 hours before meal time:

Pull the chicken and give it a good rinse off. Pat it dry with some paper towels and shove it back in the fridge.

1 1/2 hours before meal time:

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Yeah that's right I said 500 degrees. TRUST. ME.

While the oven is preheating, chop some veggies, you know onions, celery, green peppers, whatever you got laying around. Lay all that down in your roasting pan and add a couple three cups of chicken stock (more on that later)

Drop your chicken in on top of all the veggies and the stock and shoot it with some Pam cooking spray. Jam the whole mess in the oven for 30 minutes uncovered. After 30 minutes cover and give it another 30 minutes (Start your mashed taters NOW).

After the second 30 minutes have gone by, pull the chicken out of the roaster and set it on a cutting board (cover with foil). This is called letting it "rest" I know, I know it's dead, it's already "resting" just trust me on this.

Gravy:
Melt a couple tablespoons of butta and add a couple tablespoons of flour (this is called a roux or sumpin' French*, all you need to know is it makes the gravy thick). As soon as the butta,flour mixture has come together in a paste like texture strain some or all of the stock in the roasting pan off and dump it in with the roux. Bring it to a boil over medium heat, if it gets too thick add some milk until you've got a nice gravy like consistency.

Carve bird, and eat.

Stock:

Take the bits of the bird what you don't eat, chuck it in a big pot with enough water to cover and bring it to a boil. I usually add the leftover gravy (yeah I know but gravy makes everything better). Boil the bones and what not for a good hour or two. Strain off everything what isn't "Soup Like" and put it back on the stove to reduce until you've got about a 2 quarts of stock.

Let this liquid goodness cool, divide in half and freeze it in ziplock bags. Whatever you do don't listen to your wife when she tells you to seperate off the fat layer. She doesn't know what "tasty" is. Chicken fat is good for you.

Next time you make a chicken dinner you've already got stock for the roasting pan and enough to make gravy with out even trying. The stock ends up like sourdough bread because a little of the old always ends up going into the new. One quart is more than enough for a bird so you should only have to make stock every other time you make roast chicken.

You're welcome.

*If while making the uh hem "roux" you feel a strong urge to surrender, just punch yourself right in the face.