How to Prepare the Best Old Fashioned Sunday Dinner of Your Life

Everyone dreams of having an old fashioned Sunday dinner like their Grandmother's had when they were growing up, but most people have no idea where to start and think that it takes hours to prepare. Guess what?! It doesn't have to! Cooking Time does take awhile, but the preparation is minimal!

Below you will find a list of the ingredients you need and I have listed the steps to a perfect old fashioned Sunday dinner that will only take you about twenty minutes to prepare!

Ingredients List:

1 - 3 to 4 pound whole chicken

About 8 potatoes (I use Yukon gold, but any kind work fine)

2 stalks of celery

1 onion

1 ½ sticks of butter

1 can of condensed cream of chicken soup

½ cup of milk

3 tablespoons all purpose flour

Paprika

Salt & Pepper to taste

½ cup of water

½ cup of cold water

Vegetable of your choice

1 bag of Pillsbury Dinner Rolls (Find them in the freezer section at the grocery store)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

The Chicken:

Remove all of the wrapping from the chicken and be sure to pull out the bag from inside (seriously, I have forgotten and the chicken tasted awful!), wash the chicken thoroughly and then place it inside a small roasting pan. Pour the ½ cup of water into the pan. Slice ½ of one stick of butter into one inch slices and place all over the top of the chicken, scoop the cream of chicken soup out of the can into the inside of the chicken, cut the two stalks of celery in half and place these inside the chicken as well. Slice the onion and place it on top of the chicken. Then sprinkle salt, pepper and paprika to the top of the chicken. Cover with the roasting pan lid and place inside the preheated oven for an hour. Walk away, do whatever you please for one whole hour! The chicken doesn't need you to cook.

After the hour is over, remove the lid from the chicken and spoon some of the juice from the pan to the top of the chicken, then close the oven for an additional ten to fifteen minutes.

The "Sides":

While the chicken continues to cook, put the dinner rolls on a cookie sheet and follow the manufacturers instructions for baking (I always cook them at the same temperature as the chicken and they taste great), then wash and peel the potatoes, then cut them into one inch chunks. Add them to a pot of water and place it on the stove on high. Cover it with a lid, once the steam starts to come out of the lid, remove it and just let the potatoes boil for about ten to fifteen minutes. After the time is up, drain your potatoes and then put them back in the pot and add the butter and ½ cup of milk and mash until they are smooth, add salt and pepper to taste.

The Gravy:

Pull the chicken out of the oven and scoop out one cup of the juices from the bottom of the pan, then strain those juices through a metal strainer and pour into a small pot and set the temperature at medium high. While the juices are heating up to a boil, pull out the dinner rolls and set them aside, then add 3 tablespoons of flour to ½ cup of cold water in a container that is shakable and shake until the flour is dissolved. The juices should be boiling now, so remove it from the stove and add the water and flour mixture to the juices and stir rapidly until it's completely mixed together.

All in all the preparation time should take you twenty minutes or less and the cooking time about one and half hours. Then sit down, relax and eat the best Sunday dinner of your life!