Spicy Baked Chicken and Smothered Rice with Fresh Creamed Spinach.

This was a smothered chicken and rice dish... I have never prepared or ever wanted to prepare the nightmare that is known to many as chicken and rice. Chicken and Rice as most people know it is a one pot wonder or (horror). I deconstruct the dish and make it into happy parts of a plate that tie together all of the flavors while remaining independent to the integrity of each item. When you do this you give birth to a wonderful side item... the wine of the gods "gravy". Granted the side of creamed spinach is not part of the original item which you work with, however it is the perfect complement to the other somewhat southern offerings.


1 Whole Fryer Chicken
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Parsley
Poultry Seasoning
Paprika
Black Pepper
Slight use of Seasoning Salt
1 teaspoon better n bullion chicken seasoning/appropriate amounts of water.
1 Large Sweet Vidalia onion, cut in half, then sliced into thin moon shapes.

Split the fryer straight down the breast bone, crack the back and lay out in a butterfly form in a baking pan. Dust the chicken underside and topside with the seasoning... feel free to be ridiculous with the application with everything but the seasoning salt (of course), you can always add salt to a dish you can never remove it. You will also be working with another product with salt later... so be very sparing or omit it altogether.

Once a chicken is split like this it will bake faster... about 45 minutes on average at about 350-75 degrees.(hotter for a glass pan). You will want to begin tilting the pan catty corner at about 15-20 minutes into cooking... a small amount of juice will gather in the corner of the pan... the more you use a baster to take up the juices and douse the chicken with them, the more juices the chicken will produce..... this is the base for the heavenly gravy you will later create. You will need to attend to the chicken about every 12-15 minutes and baste it.

The skin on this chicken should be both dark and crisp... it is not burnt but dark and crisp from the spice and basting.  Remove the chicken to a platter with tongs and a spatula or whatever works.  The pan the chicken was cooked in is all important... on the bottom of the pan is the birth of a sauce to make a person supremely happy. Once the chicken is removed to the platter, begin to scrape the bottom of the pan with a stiff spatula and unearth the drippings from the surface bottom of the pan. Separately, mix a concoction of corn starch and water in equal parts... stir thoroughly, add to the hot dripping using a whisk to incorporate all of the ingredients... bring to a gentle boil as this will bring the cornstarch to it complete thickening capacity. If your are doing a flour thickening move, you may wish to saute some onions in the drippings first. After the onions begin to get a clear appearance, sprinkle the flour over the onions  mix together with pan dripping and allow the flour to cook over a medium heat for at least 3/4 minutes at the taste of the flour must be cooked out. You will then need to whisk you pan offerings as you add a mixture of water (with a little more better n bullion/chicken flavor) (check the saltiness of the pan offerings first) whisk the dripping continuously while adding the liquid... let bubble for a few moments while stirring.  Now plate it up!!!