Monday, February 28, 2005

Those who know me and my cooking skillz well will be surprised to learn that prior to yesterday I had never cooked a whole chicken. It wasn’t something that we did in culinary school and Mom has always cooked the Thanksgiving turkey. So imagine my trepidation when ECD asked me to cook the roaster for lunch yesterday while she and Holly (neé Nee) were at church.

My first task was to figure out how to season this bird. Did I want to use the lemon-pepper seasoning? Rosemary? What? So I opened the cabinet and the first thing I saw was a sample packet of Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Poultry Magic that I had gotten from the Cooking Club of America as part of my membership. Oooh, I’ll use that!

I rubbed the bird with a little olive oil and drizzled some in the roasting pan as well. Then I rubbed the seasoning into the bird and the little that was left over went into the oil in the pan. That mixed with the drippings would make a tasty gravy. Into the oven went the chicken and I went off to clean and whatnot.

I also fixed mashed potatoes and some mixed veggies and baked some crusty rolls that I remembered were in the freezer. When the beautiful chicken came out of the oven, I made poured the pan drippings into pot and made a quick roux in the roasting pan. Once the roux was ready, I added the drippings and the result was a very tasty gravy that didn’t need any additional seasoning with salt and pepper.

ECD and Holly agreed with me that this was the best meal I had prepared since moving in, with the exception of my famous pasta (which Holly asked for me to make again soon).

So consider this post to be my endorsement of the Poultry Magic seasoning. I plan to buy a bottle of it.