Old Bay Sour Cream Dip, Roasted Chicken and Asparagus and a Relaxing Meal

Here's a meal that was easy to put together and the appetizer was courtesy of Old Bay Seasonings. Well, partially...they sent me great recipes and seasonings as I wrote about here.

Since they started our meal off...let us take a look at the appetizer below:


Old Bay Dip

This made a great starter as we were very hungry and the chicken would take a while to roast. This dip mixed up in less than 5 minutes.

Spoon out roughly ¾ cup of sour cream.
Add ¼ cup mayonnaise.
Mix in finely chopped green onions (Scallions) and a tablespoon of Old Bay. I used the garlic and herb Old Bay.

The recipe Old Bay sent recommends placing the dip in the fridge for an hour so the flavors could mingle but we were too hungry to wait.



Serve with sliced crudités such as carrots, celery, green pepper or whatever you fancy. Surround with some buttery crackers for dipping. This was a good appetizer before the roasted chicken. The wine would have gone straight to our heads if we waited until that large bird was done cooking.



Bacon Stuffed Roasted Chicken

Many recipes call for a 3 ½ pound bird. Well…I’ve yet to find a scrawny chicken this size in our local markets so I’ll use a 5 to 6 pound roaster OR get a 4 ½ pound fryer. Whichever one is on sale, that’s the one that’s coming home to dinner.

Preheat oven to 450. Wash the chicken, dry the chicken, then set in a roasting pan. Gently ease the skin above the breast open and stuff with 3 pieces of bacon. On each side.



That’s right….six pieces of bacon go in above the breast meat. For good measure I tossed another piece of bacon inside the chicken and a half of a golden delicious apple. The apple (or any fruit or onion) will keep the bird moist as it cooks. Always works for me. Tie the legs together with string.



It looks like it has breasts….well, you now what I mean. Oh…just wait until it cooks with that bacon shoved up there!



I brushed the chicken with olive oil and seasoned with garlic salt and a bit of freshly ground pepper. What would have been good is to roast with thick slices of potato and onion. But…my baking potatoes somehow went bad and I had to toss them out the backdoor for the deer. I don’t know why I hadn’t used those potatoes in time. Shame to waste.

Place the potato-free roasting pan in the oven and roast for a half hour. Turn heat down to 400 and roast another half hour. Depending on how large a chicken you have, check the internal temperature and see if it’s done.

I needed another half hour so I turned the oven to convection roast at 375. Just gauge it on the internal temperature of the bird.



Done? Good……turn oven to 400 degrees, regular bake and roast some asparagus. The bird needs to sit and the carved into portions so the asparagus can roast while this is going on.



Roasted Asparagus

Take as many asparagus as you want to eat that evening (doesn't reheat well) and shear off the stem, leaving a nice stalk and tip. We like the small skinny asparagus.

Line them up on a baking sheet in a single layer.

Drizzle olive oil and then season. Easy! I cooked the thin ones for 12 minutes. If you are using larger stalks increase cooking time – 15 or 20 minutes ought to do it for the larger stalks.



In your preheated 400 degree oven, pop the bread in there with the asparagus..... The end result are tender asparagus with crispy tips. Great!




This cabernet doesn’t need to make another appearance at the kitchen table. It wasn’t awful, mind you, just sweeter than we are used to and…we prefer the Alice White brand or…when we’ve got some cash…maybe a Chateneuf (not likely to be making an appearance until Doug’s birthday).



Here is a picturial roundup of a sumptuous meal.......

Appetizer........




Roasted aspargus



Bacon stuffed roasted chicken........



Pour a glass of wine........



Good food, great company...I couldn't have asked for a nicer evening.