From: Mom
Ingredients:
- 1 whole chicken
- 2 teaspoons thyme
- black pepper to taste
- 2 stalks of celery, cut into chunks
- 4 carrots, cut into chunks
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/4 cup water
- 3 Tablespoons reserved chicken FAT (not broth)*
- 2 1/2 pounds red potatoes, cut into chunks
- 3 cups chopped asparagus (or italian green beans)
- 5 Tablespoons flour
- 2 1/2 cups reserved chicken stock (broth)**
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- dash of nutmeg
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Prepare chicken: rub with thyme and black pepper, fill with celery. Add to roasting pan. Surround with 1 carrot, bay leaves and water. Bake 1 hour.
- Collect 3 Tbsp chicken fat from roasting pan*. Remove carrots and celery and set aside. Add potatoes and remaining carrots to roaster and bake another 45 minutes.
- Add asparagus and bake another 45 minutes, or until internal temperature of chicken reaches 180 degrees. Remove from oven.
- Heat chicken fat in a one-quart saucepan and add flour. Stir with a whisk, and when blended, stir in chicken stock**. When blended and smooth, cook over low heat, stirring frequently, about thirty minutes. (This sauce is a veloute.) Add whipping cream and nutmeg and simmer about 10 minutes.
- *Pour cooled chicken stock/broth from the chicken into a (freezer ziplock) bag. Hold it until all the fat separates from the stock/broth (fat is on top). Snip a small hole in the corner of the bag and let the stock/broth run out and pinch the hole shut while moving over to let fat run into separate bowl.
- **If you don't have 2 1/2 cups stock/broth reserved, add canned broth to make up the difference.
