Yes, it would seem that I was spoiling my house-sitter. It was my last evening before my Florida trip and the evening my house-sitter was arriving. Our house sitter is a good friend of our. We have known him for about 12 years (one year less than I have known my husband). I enjoy it, when he comes for dinner. What is not to enjoy…he loves to eat (especially home cooked meals), enjoys wine and appreciates cooking done. It’s very easy to want to spoil someone like that 🙂 I decided to do a roast chicken. Roasting chicken basically takes care of itself! So while I am busy cleaning and packing, dinner was cooking (and filling the house with a wonderful smell). I wanted a milder tasting chicken that had just enough warmth (cumin) to make it taste good but mild enough to make some nice sandwiches during the week, for my house-sitter. I accompanied this roast with homemade gravy, some of the Italian Bread, Five Bean Salad and some spiced mashed sweet potatoes (recipe tomorrow).
Overall, a very satisfying meal. We thoroughly enjoyed it! I definitely want to do this again!
Cumin-Coriander Roasted Chicken
Ingredients For Chicken:
1 roasting chicken
( you can use legs, thighs, wings etc as well)
1 teaspoon of paprika
1 teaspoon of cayenne powder
1 tablespoon of parsley flakes
2 teaspoons of garlic powder
1 1/2 tablespoons of corriander powder
1 1/2 tablespoons of cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon of turmeric
1 teaspoon of salt (I tend to always go light on salt)
Ingredients for Gravy:
1 tablespoon of butter
2-3 tablespoons of flour
*Gluten Free Sensitivity-Use 1-2 tablespoons of cornstarch)
Drippings from Roasted Chicken
salt and pepper to taste
Additional Chicken Broth, if needed
Directions:
- Combine all spices
- Clean and pat dry, your chicken. Make sure you remove the giblets from the inside of the chicken (it should be in a packet) (Discard or include in marinade)
- Liberally spread spice mixture all over chicken. Try to place some spice under the skin and inside the cavity of the chicken.
- Marinade for at least 4 hours or overnight (I marinated this overnight)
- Bring chicken to room temperature and place in a roasting pan with a lid.
- Make at 350 F for 1 hour covered.
- Remove cover and bake for an additional half hour (depending on the size of the chicken) until chicken’s internal temperature is 160-170Â F
- Remove chicken from oven and remove from pan.
- Cover chicken and let it rest for at least 15 minutes (The internal temperature will continue to increase to 170-180 F when chicken will be done)
- Meanwhile, strain the drippings leftover in the pan and remove as much oil as possible.
- In a medium sauce pot, melt butter with flour, whisking constantly.
- Let flour cook for about 5 minutes (skip cooking if using cornstarch) and then slowly add, whisking constantly, the drippings from the roasted chicken.
- Keeping whisking until all drippings have been added. If gravy thickens and you do not have drippings left, use chicken broth until gravy stays at a pourable consistency.
- Taste and season with salt and pepper, as necessary.
Samina Cooks 
I never had tried cumin on roast but looks like would start using it, that chicken looks so juicy and delcious.
Thanks Rsmacaalay!
That chicken looks so good it makes me want to roast one up myself! Your spice blend sounds delicious. Lucky house sitter!
Thank you so much 🙂 I really adored the bread you made, for your blog today. I absolutely LOVE making bread. I have a batch of rolls resting for tonight’s dinner, in my kitchen 🙂 I am looking for recipes for whole wheat bread, for daily use, that is soft and not to crumbly (that will stay good for a few days). Do you have any recommendations?
Sorry I didn’t respond earlier! I just realized how to monitor comments, and had missed quite a few! Here’s a nice whole wheat bread recipe from my favorite Peter Reinhart. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m sure it’s great if you feel like giving it a go!
6 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp. salt
5 TB granulated sugar or brown sugar, or 3 1/2 TB honey
1 egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
1 1/4 cups lukewarm milk (any kind)
1 1/2 TB yeast
-Combine the flour, salt, and sugar (if using honey, add it to the water instead)
-In another bowl, whisk the egg and oil together
-In another bowl, combine the water, milk and yeast
-Combine these three mixtures and mix with a spoon or a mixer for 1 minutes, and then let the dough rest for 5 minutes to hydrate the flour
-Mix with a spoon or mixer for 2 minutes. If it’s too dry, add a touch more water, and if it’s too wet, add a touch more flour–the dough should be pretty sticky
-Continue mixing for 4 more minutes
-Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead by hand for a final few seconds. Then stretch the dough out and fold it over itself, then form it into a rough ball and cover the dough, leaving it to rest for 10 minutes
-After 10 minutes, stretch the dough out and fold it over itself again. Wait 10 minutes and stretch and fold once more
-Place the dough in an oiled bowl that is large enough to accommodate the dough doubling in size, cover it with plastic wrap and immediately refrigerate it for up to 4 days
-On baking day, remove the dough from the fridge 3 hours before you want to bake it
-Divide the dough into two equal pieces, shape each into a loaf and place each into a greased loaf pan
-Cover the pans and let the dough rise for 2-3 hours, until the dough domes just a bit over the top of the pans
-15 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 350
-Bake the loaves for 20 minutes, rotate the pans, and bake for 20 or more minutes. The loaves are done when they are brown on top, and hollow sounding when tapped on the bottom
-Remove them from the pans and cool them on racks for at least an hour before eating!
I can’t wait to try this recipe. Sorry for the late reply. As soon as things calm down here. I am definitely going to try this one 🙂
Someone once left store-bought, store-bought!!, BBQ sauce in our fridge. My wife gave it back to them.
LOL oh dear. Kudos to your wife!
I am terrible at making gravy so your recipe and how-to are very helpful. The chicken looks gorgeous and yes, you are spoiling your house sitter, but that’s very nice of you and in return he will probably take very good care of the house. Looking forward to the potato recipe.
I am glad you found the gravy instructions helpful. Gravy was not a normal accompaniment, when I was growing up and I learned how to make it in college. What was really helpful was watching my mother-in-law make it. You can add other seasonings, as well. I like to add extra onion powder in mine. The method is the same when making beef gravy, except I use beef stock instead. My house sitter was very appreciative and kept my house (and cat) very clean and happy. 🙂
This roasted chicken looks great. I don’t normally use cumin but I think I may experiment with it. And if I found a great person, like yourself, to house sit for that cooked me the most amazing culinary experience, I would make that into a career LOL.
Thank you Babygirl! *HUGS* You are so sweet. One day 🙂 we will have to meet. You pick the movie and I will make dinner. Deal?
Deal! 🙂
This looks awesome. I can’t say how many times we’ve left the house sitter something only to find that they thought it was off limits and, the horrors, bad take out in the fridge.
lol Yes, I can imagine having to take that out of the fridge *shudder.* I actually gave him a tour the kitchen prior to leaving, so he knew where everything was and all the foods I left for him. I was pretty happy to find, that when I returned, the kitchen as clean and there were no (significant) “horrors” found in the fridge.