One of my cousin-in-law's mothers raises chickens, and sells them as a whole roasting chicken. They are massive, I would say between 6-9lbs, and have delicious meat on them, and they are ten times better than any chicken you can buy in a store. Mom had one in her freezer so I stole it to make us a roasted chicken dinner last Sunday. Dinner included a chicken, roasted vegetables, bean casserole and home made Nanny Buns, which will be posted later in the week. To finish dinner off I made mom a bit of a creation that was diabetic friendly and tasted like a Purdy's peanut butter bar. With birds we cook in our family, turkeys, or chickens we usually start referring to it as "him" through out the cooking process... just another quirky, Midgley trait!

First thing in the morning I took the chicken and cleaned it and prepped it for dinner. The most repulsive thing I have ever done in my life is pull the liver and neck out of a chicken, yes this might make me a city girl, but I literally almost gagged. SO GROSS. Once I got passed the grossness and placed a call to mom to tell her about how repulsed I was, I moved on and started seasoning the bird. I put some season pepper, coarse salt, poultry seasoning, roasted dried garlic and sliced lemon on the bird, I even put some lemon IN the bird, and covered it and placed it in the fridge until it was time to stuff him and cook him. You cannot pre-stuff the bird as the chicken can sometimes ruin the stuffing if it sits in there for too long, you are way better off to stuff the chicken then shove him directly in the oven. I let the chicken sit in the fridge for a good 4-5 hours seasoning before I cooked it, and during that time, I made buns, went grocery shopping and made the tasty Peanut Butter Tarts.

For the stuffing I purchased one of those frozen sacks and then I added some toasted coarsely chopped pecans, 4 slices of bacon and some stove top, as well as a few dashes of poultry seasoning. I shoved it in a stuffing back, shoved it in the bird, put the leftovers in a casserole dish and called it stuffing! 

For the veggies, I used parsnips, carrots, new potatoes, shallots (as I couldn't get pearl onions) and some garlic. I cut these all up in hunks, toasted them in some coarse salt, pepper and oil and placed them all around the bird once he was stuffed and ready to roast. 

The chicken, since it was so big, took just over 2.5 hours to cook at 350, and the chicken/veggies were perfect.  

For the bean casserole, I used frozen french cut beans (bad I know... but it's what I had on hand), mixed with some low-sodium cream of mushroom soup, lea-n-parins, and on top some frenchies fried onions. I baked it for the last 25-30 minutes that the bird was roasting.  

Mom and I made some gravy, which we used the pan drippings from mixed with a packaged mix to make it a bit thicker, it worked super well and was so tasty, it required some very good straining! 

Dinner is served! 

You have to wait for tomorrow for the diabetic dessert, sorry Joan, there just isn't enough room on this post!