Old Fashioned Chicken Dinner

One of our family favorites is my Old Fashioned Chicken Dinner!  We love to have a meal that reminds us of Thanksgiving because we want to be thankful people, after all.  The food is delicious and nutritious.

Here is my recipe…

Take out a frozen whole chicken from the freezer. Generously sprinkle the chicken with onion powder, salt, pepper, paprika, and tarragon. Finely chop a large onion and stuff that in and around the bird Cover and place into the oven at 400 F for about 3-4 hours depending on the size of the bird.

Gravy… After about 2 hours remove the cover and baste. pour off the drippings into a small cooking pot and bring it to a rolling boil. Make a mixture of equal amounts of flour (or Non-GMO corn starch) and water. Mix thoroughly and add to the boiling drippings. Stir in until the gravy is the desired thickness. you can also add salt and pepper to the gravy for more flavor.

Peel and cut up your potatoes (red potatoes work best). Place into a large cooking kettle filled with water. boil the potatoes until you can break easily with a fork.  Using a colander, drain the water off the potatoes.

Add 3 ounces of cream cheese and 4 TBS of butter to the hot pan.

Pour the hot potatoes over the cream cheese and butter.  Mash the potatoes adding a tiny bit of milk. Season with sea salt.

Two other possible sides to make this a tasty, old fashioned meal, are steamed broccoli and stuffing.  To steam broccoli, you simply remove all the flowerettes and put them into a sauce pan with about 2 cups of water.  Bring it to a boil, cover, and turn off heat.  The steam from the boiling water will finish out the broccoli so that it is tender, still bright green, and tender.  If you overcook the broccoli, it gets very mushy and has less nutrient content.

Spoon the Broccoli into a pretty bowl, removing all the extra water.  Add some butter and salt if you like.

To make some old fashioned dressing or seasoned stuffing, you simply use old toasted bread.  I would suggest using a nice sprouted bread, sour dough, or even a gluten free variety to be healthier.  Dice the toasted bread so you have about 2 cups.  Bring 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock and 2 Tbs of butter to a boil.  Turn the heat off and add your dried bread cubes, stirring it into the hot buttery stock and fluffing it together.  Add onion powder, salt, pepper, and dried parsley to flavor it.  If you want your stuffing to be crispy, you can put it into a oven safe bowl and bake it until golden brown.  Put it into a pretty bowl and set it on the table…

Look how pretty the table looks with all this delicious food.  It is a meal fit for a king!  Or a family feast.

Tune into tomorrow to find out how you can make a meal from what you have left over from this meal.  I love teaching people how to extend meals.

Enjoy!

Oh and by the way, you can download the recipe cards for FREE by clicking on the box below.