Stove Top Roast Chicken With Gravy

The next step was to thicken the water and pan dripping into a gravy.

So. Have you ever decided it was too hot outside to turn on your oven? Me too! The problem is last week I decided this after impulsively buying a whole raw chicken at the supermarket. Among the things in life I have never learned how to do is cut up a chicken carcass. Don't know how and have no desire to learn, to be honest! That's why if you ever eat a chicken dinner in my home which I've cooked, it's always oven-roasted chicken. 

Can you roast a chicken on the stovetop? I was about to find out! As it turns out ... absolutely! Here's how:

Ingredients:     
                                                 
1 raw chicken (Mine was nearly 4 pounds)

2 stalks celery, diced
1 small onion, diced
2 cups water
2 - 3 large carrots
2 - 3 medium potatoes
1 large chicken bouillon cube
Spices to taste: I used garlic, Zatarian's Creole Seasoning, rosemary, bay leaf, Herbes de Provence
1 tablespoon flour per cup of water to make the gravy.

Directions:

1) Take out a large stockpot. I use an all-purpose nonstick steel Wok pan. Toss in the bird (add a pad of butter, or a little olive oil if your stockpot is not nonstick). On medium-low heat, brown the chicken on both sides. It takes about 5 minutes.

2) Next toss in the diced celery and onions for a few minutes to grill them. 

3) Add the water, carrots and potatoes, as well as, bouillon and seasonings to taste.

4) Put a lid on the pot and simmer the chicken on medium-low heat for 1 - 1 1/2 hours.

5) After 20 minutes, the carrots and potatoes should be tender, so remove them from the pot and let the chicken continue to cook. You should be able to smell and see when the chicken is done. When it is, gently (so it doesn't fall apart) remove it also.

6) I let the pan drippings (water, cooked celery, onions, and seasonings) cool a bit before whisking 2 tablespoons of flour dissolved into some water into them. Simmer for another 5 minutes, or so to thicken into gravy.

Presto, dinner is ready. One-pan summer meals rock!

In the fall and winter, you can use the recipe to roast a chicken INSIDE your oven ... and can eliminate browning the bird first. In the oven, remove the top off of your roasting pan to brown the chicken as the final step.  On a stovetop, brown the chicken first.

How it all began:




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