Gluten-Free Fancy Dinner: Roast Chicken with Wild Rice Stuffing

A good friend of mine is moving soon, and I so made her a nice dinner this weekend in a vain attempt to bribe her to stay.  She has Celiac, so no wheat was harmed in the making of this dinner.

Roast Chicken with Wild Rice Stuffing
Nouns:
1 whole roaster chicken, about 4-5lbs
olive oil
6 sprigs fresh thyme
1-2 handfuls dried cranberries
3 stalks chopped celery
2 minced shallots
1-2 handfuls shelled pecans
1 cup wild rice, prepared
2 cups chicken broth
1-2 tablespoons corn starch
1 small onion
2 cloves minced garlic
salt
pepper
butter

Verbs:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.  Gently saute the celery and shallots in a small (or large) amount of butter over medium heat for several minutes until shallots become translucent.  Strip Thyme leaves off the stems and add to the pan.  Add garlic and cook several minutes, stirring to keep from sticking.  Add more butter if needed.  Turn heat to low and add cranberries and pecans.  Stir in wild rice, adding more butter and a splash of chicken broth if necessary to keep moist.  Remove from heat.

Remove any icky bits from inside the chicken.  My supermarket generally doesn't include giblets anymore, but often the neck is in there.  Get that out of the way.  Rinse the chicken inside and out and pat dry.  Liberally coat with olive oil, salt and pepper inside and out.  Position the chicken breast-side up in a roasting pan.  Spoon the wild rice mixture into the chicken's cavity, getting as much in there as you can.  Then, tie the chicken's legs together with kitchen twine to hold it all together.  Fold the chicken's wing tips under the chicken to keep them from burning.  Cut the small onion in half and put in the pan next to the chicken.  Roast the chicken at 450 until your meat thermometer reads 170, or if you're old fashioned, until the juices run clear; this takes about 75-90 minutes.  If you are using a pounds to minutes roasting ratio guide, be sure to allow for the pound or so of stuffing. As you are roasting the chicken, keep an eye on the drippings.  If they are about to burn, add several glugs of chicken broth to the pan.  You may need to do this several times depending on the depth of your pan.

When done, remove the chicken from the roasting pan and allow to rest for ten minutes.  While chicken is resting, remove the onion and pour the drippings into a stove-top safe pan (perhaps your roasting pan will do) and reduce the liquid over medium high heat until you have the volume of liquid you want for gravy.  If necessary, add the rest of the chicken broth to make more gravy.  Thicken by whisking in corn starch until desired gravy consistency is reached, season with salt and pepper.  Serve with the chicken.

I served my chicken on a platter with the roasted onions, stuffing, and sprigs of thyme, and had mashed sweet potatoes and sauteed tarragon carrots as side dishes.  It was tasty.