Roasted Chicken Balsamic & Butternut Squash

I love Friday nights in.

I also love pumpkin beer.

So this Friday night in + the first pumpkin beers of the season = a great combination.

I really enjoy Shipyard, but I thought the Smuttynose was a little too hoppy.

Joe & Cate came over to hang out, eat dinner, and drink some beers with us too.  While dinner was cooking, we munched on some chips & salsa.  I use the word “some” lightly.  I really ate the whole bowl I think.  Oops!

We also sampled some of the clam chowder Tim made on Thursday night.  I was proud of him – this came out great!  And was a nice appetizer to hold us over before dinner was ready.

Dinner was roasted chicken and balsamic (courtesy of The Food Network) with a side of butternut squash (courtesy of Kath at Kath Eats Real Food).

Recipes below!

CHICKEN

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 (4-pound) whole chicken, cut into pieces (giblets, neck and backbone reserved for another use) — we used boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1/2 cup low-salt chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest — we left this out
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley leaves

Directions

1. Whisk the vinegar, mustard, lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper in small bowl to blend.
2. Combine the vinaigrette and chicken pieces in a large resealable plastic bag; seal the bag and toss to coat. Refrigerate, turning the chicken pieces occasionally, for at least 2 hours and up to 1 day. 
3. Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees F.
4. Remove chicken from the bag and arrange the chicken pieces on a large greased baking dish.
5. Roast until the chicken is just cooked through, about 1 hour. If your chicken browns too quickly, cover it with foil for the remaining cooking time.
6. Transfer the chicken to a serving platter. Place the baking dish on a burner over medium-low heat.
7. Whisk the chicken broth into the pan drippings, scraping up any browned bits on the bottom of the baking sheet with a wooden spoon and mixing them into the broth and pan drippings.  Drizzle the pan drippings over the chicken.
8. Sprinkle the lemon zest and parsley over the chicken, and serve.

SQUASH

All we did was dice up the squash and combine it on a cooking sheet with some chopped onion, fennel seed, olive oil, salt, pepper, and cinnamon.  Cooked it for 30 minutes at 400 degrees.  I could eat squash for every meal I think.  So good.

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Question of the Day:  What’s your ideal Friday night?