A New Kind of Chicken--Roasted

When we were little, we would always ask my Mom what was for dinner. Quite often, the answer would be, "A new kind of chicken." Well, I found a lovely new kind of chicken. It is very easy to make...just leave yourself plenty of roasting time because this meal won't be done in 30 minutes.

Lemon-Herb Roast Chicken with Pan Gravy

Ingredients:

1 lemon
1 can (10 3/4 ox) Campbell's Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup (Regular or 98% fat free)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary leaves, or 1 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves, crushed
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves, or 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves, crushed
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 roasting chicken (5-7 pounds)
1/4 cup dry white wine or chicken broth
1/4 cup water

Directions:

Heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grate 1 1/2 teaspoons zest and squeeze 1 tablespoon juice from the lemon.

Stir the lemon zest, lemon juice, soup, rosemary, thyme, and garlic in a medium bowl. Reserve 1 cup soup mixture for the gravy. Place the chicken into a shallow roasting pan.

Roast the chicken for 20 minutes. Brush the chicken with 1/4 cup soup mixture.

Roast for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through (use a meat thermometer to check for doneness). Remove the chicken to a serving platter and keep warm.

Spoon off any fat from the pan juices. Stir the wine or chicken broth in the roasting pan and heat over medium-high heat to a boil, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Stir in the reserved soup mixture and water, and cook until the mixture is hot and bubbling. Serve the gravy with the chicken.

Makes 6 servings.

Source: Campbell's recipe, found here.

Notes: My chicken took longer than an hour and 15 minutes to cook...and I had hungry kids on my hands. So, I carved the chicken and microwaved it for a couple of minutes until it wasn't pink anymore.

I also didn't make the pan gravy as stated in the recipe. My roast chicken had a some interesting drippings--mostly it just looked fatty. Rather than use the roast dripping, I mixed the remaining soup mix with about 1 cup of chicken broth. I heated that and served it with the chicken. The sauce was FANTASTIC! It was so flavorful. We ended up with extra sauce. I saved it, froze it, and used it a few weeks later on some simple sauteed chicken. Still very delicious. Plus, my boys ate it, so that made me happy!