While your roast chicken is resting under a foil tent, you can -- and should -- make a quick gravy in the same pan the chicken was cooked in. The chemical reactions that occur during cooking - caramelization of the sugars from the vegetables and the Maillard reactions involving the proteins from the meat - will leave lots of crusty brown bits stuck to the bottom of your roasting pan. If you look at these bits as simply more work for the dishwasher, you are missing the entire point of roasting. These brown bits, diluted in a flavorful liquid which is then thickened with flour, will concentrate all the best flavors of the chicken and aromatics you just cooked in a savory gravy that is as good on starch as it is on the chicken itself. Ingredients can vary, but the important steps are fourfold:

1. Pour off the excess grease from the pan
   
2. Deglaze the pan by pouring in a cool liquid while the pan is still hot
   
3. Strain the liquid
   
4. Thicken with flour to create gravy
   

Within these steps are an infinite number of possible variations, most notably in the liquid (or liquids) you use as the base for your gravy. My favorite method runs as follows from the end of Thursday's chicken recipe:

1. Pour off the excess fat from the pan, without removing the vegetables, and reserve. Chop up the heart and the gizzard (removing the gristle from the gizzard first) into small pieces and add them, along with the neck, to the pan.
   
2. While the roasting pan is still hot, pour in 1 cup of dry white wine. It will bubble and hiss and make you think you've made a terrible mistake, but trust me, you're doing fine. With a wooden spoon, quickly scrape the bottom of the pan to loosen all the brown bits off and start dissolving them in the wine, which will settle down in a few seconds. Once you've scraped the bottom of the pan clean, put the roasting pan on a burner (yes, on the stove) and bring it to a boil. Reduce the wine until it is almost dry, then add two cups of chicken stock (homemade or from a can). Bring this again to a boil, stirring constantly.
   
3. Once the boil is reached, quickly strain the liquid through a fine-mesh strainer into a heat-proof container (a 2-cup pyrex measuring cup should be perfect if you properly reduced the wine). Do not press the solids into the strainer, simply tap or shake it to get all the liquid out.
   
4. Hopefully you have about 3 tablespoons of chicken fat and olive oil left over from step 1. If you don't, add melted butter to make up the difference. To this, add 3 tablespoons of flour and stir it thoroughly to create a lump-free slurry. Pour your strained liquid back into the roasting pan, put it on medium heat, and stir in your fat-flour slurry. Stir constantly as it slowly comes to a boil. The gravy is as thick as it is ever going to get once the boil is reached, and should be on the heat for at least three minutes from the time the slurry is added, to cook away the rawness of the flour. If you want you can strain it again, but if you made your slurry properly you shouldn't need to. Season it with salt and pepper to taste, and pour onto your chicken - which should by now be just ready to carve - or just about any starch - mashed potatoes are always a winner with a roast chicken.