The Speares

Living the life in Muskoka


Roast Chicken



Preheat the oven to 425. Prepare a box of stuffing (or make your own), and then set it aside to cool a bit.

Take the 4 or 5 pound Chicken which you have previously thawed out and rince it inside and out. Once the stuffing has cooled sufficient for handling fill the cavity of the bird with stuffing. Place in oven-proof glass baking pan on a rack. Sprinkle on some poultry rub and insert the meat thermometer kind of towards the middle and at the bottom of the stuffing. Even better, stick a probe there and another in a thick part of the bird.

Into the oven, and immediately turn the temp down to 375.

Start peeling potatoes. Make sure they're a uniform size, cut in half as necessary. Put in pot of cold water on stove with a half teaspoon of salt.

Get potatoes boiling, then turn down to a simmer with a slightly ajar lid.

Check the chicken - it is most likely done, or will be soon. Temp of stuffing wants to be well over 165 and the chicken itself should be 185. Move the probe around a bit to verify, unless you already have a few in different spots. Should be no pink juices and legs should be easy to move around. If done, remove from oven. Put bird on plate and tent with foil.


Let the glassware cool down a touch and in particular nothing should be bubbly. Then add some chicken stock to loosen up the brown bits. Scrape the works into a frypan along with the rest of a container of chicken stock and set it to a high simmer with no lid.

When it is getting almost tasty enough to be gravy, get a few tbsp of the stock into a cup to cool. When coolish, whisk in a tbsp of cornstarch. Then remove the pan of gravy from the stove and let sit 'til no more bubbles. Then stir in the cornstarch mixture and back on the burner whilst continuing to stir.

When the gravy is thick and the potatoes are done you're ready to serve. If you're making soup out of the bones don't drain the potatoes; instead transfer them into a different pot on the still warm burner in order to dry them. Then as chicken bones become free add them to the potato water. Either refrigerate the bone water until tomorrow or boil it up now with onions, celery and carrots.