The perfect roast chicken dinner

[Dustyblue]

I've been craving a proper roast dinner (it's the start of winter here in Oz) and I think chicken is the go. Much cheaper than the rest & such a fabulous meal.

To me a proper roast chicken dinner should have:

Homemade gravy from the chicken juices
Roast potatoes and pumpkin
Sage & onion stuffing, both up the bum and as stuffing balls roasted with the veggies
Peas

Parsnips are good but haven't seen a decent one in the shops yet.

What do you all serve with a roast chook?

I think you’re not supposed to do the stuffing inside the bird as it can prevent the meat being cooked properly.

No stuffing in the bird, always separate.
Gravy with meat and vegetable juice,
Roast potatoes,
Bread sauce,
Peas,
Carrots
Sprouts when available pan fried with chestnuts and pancetta,
If no sprouts leek or cauliflower in cheesy sauce.

Bloody Hell, I've found my people!

Roast potatoes AND mash? Is that allowed?
Yorkies
Cauliflower cheese
Pigs in blankets if I can cook them properly- picturing the bacon unwinding
Roast pumpkin (sorry) and carrots, parsnips if I can find a good one
Sage & onion stuffing

@Sago1 Brussell sprouts fried in onion and bacon... many thanks for that reminder

Peas
Broccolini
Wilted spinach & butter
Creamed spinach

Phwoarrr!

I’m in Perth. Light your Weber. The charcoal one.

Chicken, potatoes, pumpkin are all divine over charcoal. And it gets properly hot so they stuffing cooks properly.

Don’t bother with bread sauce. It’s fowl. Just have more roast potatoes.

A squeeze of lemon over the chicken to start.

Not that I’ve ever done it because the only time I ever had pigs in blankets, they were just mouthfuls of salt, but if you have a good butcher, ask them to slice belly bacon very thinly so it wraps easier.

It's fowl

Nice one! 😆

But yes it is pretty foul. Looks like baby spew.

I love a chicken dinner!!
Mine would have pigs in blankets, roast potatoes and parsnips, red cabbage with apple, gravy with some bisto (and a bit of franks hot sauce!), broccoli, green beans, carrots, bread sauce. And pork and chestnut stuffing. And Yorkshires. Bit of mustard.
Think that's enough? Lol

Stuff it with lemon, rosemary, and loads of garlic.
Herbs and butter under the skin.

Roast potatoes or garlic mashed potatoes, and/or mashed or roasted parsnips.
Green beans and carrots.
Gravy made with juices.

I really want a roast chicken dinner now.

Thank you all! My organic corn-fed chook is waiting in the fridge for tonight.

I'll let you the final result, am really looking forward to it.

It bloody well is traditional in Yorkshire, but you eat it before the roast with gravy.

OP you shouldn't stuff the chicken bum, or only a little bit.

Mine is

Small chicken (I live alone) with a chunk of lemon up its bum and thyme in the neck. Put that in the slow cooker about 6 am for lunch time.

Roast potatoes and mash (sometimes mash with parsnip and garlic).

Carrots

Broccoli or cabbage

Stuffing balls

I usually move the chick to the oven to crisp the skin and make the gravy in the slow cooker.

I eat a portion and then freeze the left overs.

Defiantlynot41

Dustyblue yes, almost certainly a UK thing, I've never seen them in Australia or US (but happy to stand corrected)

I'd never heard of pigs in blankets until my father got a job with a US company in the late 70s and, hence, I went to a North American run school.

Also, Joey in Friends:

I'm sorry! It's the pigs!
They're reluctant to get in the blankets!

So, weirdly, I'd always assumed they were of US origin

Love a chicken dinner!
I save bread sauce, cranberry sauce and the aforementioned Ps in Bs for Christmas, though.
I'm very much about getting the chicken skin crispy and producing lots of good gravy.

Great thread.

Creamy leeks

@LaMarschallin aren't pigs in blankets in the US wrapped in pastry 🤔. Sure I've seen that somewhere before.

When we have one we have roast chicken with lemon and thyme, sage and onion stuffing balls, roasties , honey glazed carrots, either broccoli and cauliflower cheese or buttered cabbage,leeks and bacon, always Yorkshire puddings, occasionally peas or mashed swede, never parsnips as I hate them 😅. Loads of thick gravy. Crispy chicken skin is the best part of a roast chicken dinner IMHO closely followed by using the carcass and leftovers to make a big pot of soup 😋

LaMarschallinaren't pigs in blankets in the US wrapped in pastry 🤔. Sure I've seen that somewhere before.

You could well be right.
The ones I was introduced to were definitely in bacon, but that was at a friend's house and her mother was German, so may not have been authentic US.
It was the first time I'd come across the concept though.
Whoever thought it up, I'm grateful

closely followed by using the carcass and leftovers to make a big pot of soup

Ooh, yes! The chicken soup - and dumplings chez LaMar - were my younger DD's favourite bit of the whole roast chicken thing.

I don't think anyone has mentioned my favourite roast chicken dinner.

I don't care what is on the table (although I'd leave mash & yorkies), it has to be

COOKED BY SOMEONE ELSE.

Having been the family cook for many decades, it's such a treat to hear someone else call out "dinner's ready" !

No pumpkin please.

Separate skin from breast ( easy) and insert pats of butter or Boursin. Oil the skin and then apply salt and pepper.

20 mins per pound plus 20.

Rest the hell out of it and meanwhile use the delicious juices for a jus. Deglaze the pan, Pour it off add alcohol, boil. DO NOT add thickening .

Steamed broccoli and leeks.

For roasties: par boil taties till starting to give a little. Drain and Shake them up hard with lid on pan so they fluff up a bit.

Heat your goose or duck fat ( nothing else pl) and carefully transfer taties. Roll them around in the fat using two forks, and transfer to oven. Re apply s and p. Cook with chicken but you may need to finish on higher heat when chicken is resting.

It bloody well is traditional in Yorkshire, but you eat it before the roast with gravy.
^ this

If it's made in muffin tins and served alongside the meat, then calling it a Yorkshire Pudding should be a hanging offence. Do 'em proper.

Love to have sprouts with our roast dinners and for the pigs in blankets we just use big sausages and make extra for later or sandwiches next day

My chicken roasts are accompanied by roast potatoes, cauli cheese, honeyed carrots, stuffing, Yorkshire puddings and cranberry sauce. Not forgetting the gravy. Peas and pumpkin wouldn't be my first choice of accompaniments.

Cheesy leeks.

Sausagemeat stuffing, roast potatoes and carrots, cauli cheese, pigs in blankets, some greens, gravy made with the juices.

Yorkshire puddings

Pigs in blankets, stuffing and cauliflower cheese will survive being cooked ahead and reheated while the bird is resting (and do rest the bird)!

Can I enquire about corn fritters the OP mentioned upthread: I've had small little spicy ones with a dipping sauce, but that sounds unlikely to be what these would be.

It sounds as if the chook is going to be a proper Mumsnet chicken!

Sage, onion, cranberry and cinnamon stuffing, roast potatoes, roasted carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes, beetroot depending on season, cauliflower cheese, green beans or broccoli. Gravy - lots but I use granules mixed into the juices. Bread sauce if dd is here as we are the only ones who like it