Thanksgiving come early

Roast citrus chicken, gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce and glazed carrots

*Notice the napkin layout. Bodie set the table :)

This past Sunday I felt way overdue for an afternoon in the kitchen. (yes, I realize it's Thursday and I'm finally blogging this. Little behind all over the board this week. Who needs winter sweaters out of storage this year anyway?) Not that I want to do it every weekend, but there's something about cooking for a few hours (wine glass in hand) that I find very relaxing. Since I hadn't roasted a chicken yet this fall, I decided it was the perfect day. With Thanksgiving just around the corner we went for the full shebang!

Where these recipe came from
The roast chicken is an adaptation of an amazing Giada De Laurentiis roast chicken recipe I've made before. I didn't pull the recipe out this time, just added the essential flavors I remember. I couldn't find whole grain stuffing in the store, so I made my own. it was MUCH easier than I expected! The cranberry sauce was just cooked cranberries in a pan, and the carrots is an easy adaptation of a WW carrots recipe my mom makes (MOM...this is way easier to do than getting out the cookbook FYI)

Making the recipes
For some reason roasting a chicken always seems to take long that I think it's going to. This one took a good 2.5 hours. It was a 5lb+ bird, so maybe that had something to do with it? Everything else went to plan...here's to a great fall afternoon in the kitchen!

The results
Chicken: awesome! Super juicy and tender! Everyone seemed to like it (expect for Bodie who seems to have "chicken issues")
Gravy: this was good. I really liked the citrus in the background. I've definitely not yet perfected the gravy technique however..I would have liked this to be thicker. But it was really nice as a sauce.
Stuffing: this was good, but I think I can do better. For my first homemade stuffing attempt, I was pleased. But I think I can keep tweaking this.
Cranberry sauce: Bodie and I almost finished the entire thing, we liked it so much. As someone who could eat an entire can of the fake stuff (high fructose corn syrup and all) I was so happy with the way this came out!
Carrots: excellent! Everyone ate these. The honey glaze definitely helps!

The recipes
Roast citrus chicken
whole chicken (mine was 5lbs, but whatever size you want to go with)
1/2 bunch fresh thyme
1 bunch fresh sage
2 cloves garlic
3 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
1 large orange (I used 2 small clementines)
1 lemon
1 cup chicken stock

Heat oven to 400. Pull all the junk out of the middle of the chicken and then rinse and pat dry. Put the herbs, garlic, olive oil, zest from the lemon, and salt and pepper in the food processer and process until it becomes a paste. Add more olive oil if needed. Cut the rest of the lemon and orange into chunks. Put the fruit in the cavity (gross) of the chicken and rub the herb paste under the skin. Place the chicken on a rack in a roasting pan breast side up.

Add the chicken stock to the bottom of the pan. Cook the chicken at 400 for 30 minutes and then drop the heat to 350 for the remainder. Baste with the stock every half hour or so. Cook until a meat thermometer registers 180.

Let sit for 20 minutes before carving.

Gravy
drippings from chicken
1 tbsp flour
1 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup orange juice
salt and pepper

Put roasting pan with drippings over two burners on the stove. Heat drippings and add in flour. Stir over med-high heat.

Cook for 2 minutes and add chicken stock and orange juice. Season with salt and pepper and bring to a boil, stirring. Let cook down until desired thickness and serve with chicken.

Whole grain stuffing
1 loaf whole grain bread (we ended up with about 2/3 of a loaf...Brett got into the bread a day early!) I'd say it was a good 5 cups cubed bread
3 tbsp olive oil, divided
1 tsp dried garlic
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil
salt and pepper
1/2 onion
2 stalks of celery (we didn't have celery so I didn't use it...but I'm pretty sure it's a stuffing staple)
1 clove garlic
1/2 bunch fresh thyme, stripped from stalks
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
2 cups (give or take) chicken stock

Mix 2 tbsp olive oil with dried garlic, oregano and basil. Cut bread horizontally and brush with oil mixture. Put on a baking sheet and toast in the oven (at 400) for 20 minutes. Once bread is done, and has cooled, cut into small cubes. Meanwhile cook onion, celery, garlic in remaining oil in a small skillet over med heat. Mix bread cubes, cooked vegetables, thyme and parsley. Add in stock, a little at a time, until bread is soft. Spoon into a baking dish, coated with cooking spray.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Cranberry sauce
2 cups cranberries, fresh or frozen
2 cups water
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp honey

Mix cranberries, water, orange juice, brown sugar and cinnamon in a small saucepan over med-high heat. Bring to a boil and let cook. The cranberries will burst and start to thicken. Let cook down until desired degree of thickness. It took a good 30-35 minutes for me to get these where I wanted them.

Put into a bowl and cook for at least a half hour before serving.

Glazed carrots
1 1/2 cups baby carrots
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Put carrots in a small saucepan with an inch or so of water. Cover and bring to a boil over med-high heat. Once water is boiling, turn heat back to med-low. Cook until carrots are desired degree of tenderness. I cook for about 10 minutes. Drain carrots and mix with honey, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Happy early Thanksgiving!