Got chicken pieces? Was the butcher out of whole fryers? Rick was. So I bought three breasts & a pound of bacon (to make up for lost pieces I wasn’t going to get). I believe I can work with this, chicken & cured pork. Nothing wrong with THAT.

I’m really liking this whole marinating the chicken in salt before you roast it. So I put on a load of chunky salt and let it sit for an hour or so. Washed the pieces and patted thoroughly dry. Tucked a half piece of bacon under the skin (wonderful tasting and makes stellar gravy).

Toss over all some really good extra virgin olive oil, fresh ground black pepper, herbies and some Old Bay Seasoning. Since I knew this time gravy was in the future, I tossed in the fry pan some diced onions & garlic. This went over the top of the trivet. I enjoy my meat not being cooked directly in simmering fat, for this dish.
I tossed it in to a 350 oven on the bottom rack for about 50 minutes or so. Since brown rice takes about the same time, I put that to cooking at the same time.
After everything was going, I pulled out the steamer and prewarmed the water for the fresh broccoli. Gotta git yer ducks in a row pally boy.

After a bit the chicken was done. Pull, set to the side and tent with foil.
Pull trivet from roasting pan (cast iron fry pan) and turn fire on medium high. Get yer stuff a bubblin’. Stir some. There was quite a bit of fat, so I left it in the pan. Mix about 1.5 teaspoons of cornstarch with cold water to a good slurry. Add it to yer bubblin fat & bits and thicken things up. Let that simmer for a few minutes while you dig for some natural chicken broth. Add the broth until you get the desired consistency. Since I added all those ‘bits’ to the roaster, I chose to strain the gravy through a sieve to make nice. This actually turned out to be more of a nice sauce than a real gravy. What with cornstarch and all. Still quite rich from the chicken, bacon & onions … oh and the garlic. Yum.

And there’s that. Very rich, yet light meaty meal with baconny flavor that just can’t be beat. I mean you have crunchy chicken skin with herbies along with the bacon. That right there is love. Look close.
Serve.