So, continuing the cooking theme, tonight I made oven roast chicken with gravy, buttered carrots, and mashed potatoes. This is the first time I’ve ever attempted to cook a whole chicken and make real gravy from meat drippings.

Let me tell you what I learned:

DON’T COOK THE CHICKEN UPSIDE DOWN.

Oh, there’s a right-side up?

Yes, it turns out that the chicken should cook breast-side up. In my defense, I was just following the recipe that said to “place the chicken in the pan” without indicating HOW to place it.

I should have referred to the picture of the finished chicken in the cookbook, maybe.

Anyway. It took 2 hours to cook instead of 1.25-1.5 hours, and when the temperature finally registered in the right range and I pulled it out and started carving, I couldn’t figure out where the meat was. I kept cutting into bone. As I verbally expressed my frustration for the leanness of the poultry my brother suggested that maybe I got a defective chicken.

Finally, finally the lightbulb turned on and I realized my mistake. Flipped the bird over and voila! Perfectly cooked breast meat.

I took pictures, but I will spare you. My first attempt at gravy turned out good, I think, and I had no complaints on the mashed potatoes or buttered carrots (which were baked in the oven an hour, then dotted with butter and sprinkled with sugar, salt, and pepper).

Lesson learned.