last night, i may or may not have been an absolute genius in the kitchen.  you decide.  here’s how it went down:

i started with a recipe by lovely and talented giada di laurentiis, for balsamic roasted chicken.  i went to the grocery store and just bought all the ingredients, but didn’t read the recipe.  then i got home and noticed that you marinate pieces of a whole chicken in the balsamic mixture, OVERNIGHT.  that will be a yummy recipe some day, but i needed to make something in two hours.

no biggie.

and then i got this brilliant idea!  why doesn’t anyone stuff sausage in a chicken?  this is an italian version of roasted chicken, so i thought it would be awesome.  and oh oh oh…it was.

so here’s the recipe:

SARAH’S TRICKED OUT SICK-GOOD ITALIAN ROAST CHICKEN

one whole SMART chicken, washed and patted dry, and rubbed with salt and pepper (sprinkle some on the inside too)

take some italian sausage and brown it

stuff into the chicken:  red onion, garlic cloves, the afore-mentioned sausage and lemon if there’s room

put in a roasting pan and pour the following mixture all over the bird: balsamic vin, stone ground mustard, melted butter, garlic powder (garlic cloves burn), and lemon juice, all whisked together.

stick it in the fridge while you are preparing the best roasted veggies EVER.

cut up all your favorite veggies.  i used parsnip, (which makes everything taste like there’s cinnamon or something exotic and sweet in there.  gotta try it.) carrots, red onion, mushrooms, zucchini and yellow squash, asparagus, a few cloves of garlic, and red new potatoes (that i microwaved for a few minutes).  cut the softer veggies bigger, so that all the veggies finish at the same time.

whisk up the following:  stone ground mustard, organic maple syrup, olive oil, salt and pepper, and lemon juice.  toss with the veggies.

take the chicken out of the fridge and scatter the veggies around the chicken, and the rest on another sheet pan.  make a lot.  you’re going to love them.

roast at 400 for 1 and 1/2 hours.  try not to die from the amazing smell wafting through the air.

this part you don’t have to do, but i had some sausage left over that didn’t fit in the bird.  i took the sausage and the drippings from the pan, and, well, you see where i’m going with this, right?  oh yeah.  i was drinking a glass of wine and threw it in there.  then added lemon juice and a sprinkling of flour.  i let it come together a little and poured it over the chicken.  oh my goodness?

i don’t have to tell you how incredibly happy we were last night.