Recipe Report: Roast Chicken

You may find it hard to believe, but until tonight, I had never roasted a whole chicken before.

Cray-zee!


But, I had been thinking about it for a while, so onward and upward! It was FANTASTIC!! I did a bunch of research, and combined a bunch of different recipes. (Sorry, Jon and Rebecca, but I wasn't going to buy a bottle of apple brandy just for this...)


1 largish chicken - an oven stuffer roaster. Ours weighed in at a mighty 7 and a half pounds!
1 head of garlic, cut in half, across the middle
1 lemon, cut in half
1 large or 2 small onions - cut into wedges
bunch of fresh herbs (I used parsley and thyme.)
salt, pepper and paprika

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Wash chicken and pat dry. Trim off anything strange looking bits of the chicken. Place in roasting pan (I used a 9x13 Pyrex casserole.) Squeeze the lemon over the chicken, and into the pan. Put half the squeezed lemon inside the cavity. Now put the herbs and half the garlic inside. Tuck the tips of the wings underneath the bird, and sprinkle the rest of the cloves of garlic around the pan. Add the onions pieces and season with the salt and pepper and paprika.

Insert the probe of the digital thermometer into the thickest part of the breast and set it to 180 degrees. Chicken should cook until it's between 180-185. Cover with foil for the first 30 minutes and go in occasionally to baste or make sure nothing is drying out or burning. 

Our chicken took about 2 1/2 hours.
It was phenomenal.
I can't wait to eat the leftovers tomorrow.

Comments

Grampa said…
Nah; it was so better than phenomenal. In a lifetime of eating chicken, and loving every one, it was one of the BEST damn chickens this grampa ever has eaten. Even better than that. It was the ethereal pattern for all roast chickens. It was, in a word "yummy". And I made yummy sounds.
Unknown said…
youre pathetic. roasted chicken is on the weekly menu over here in fohi. nothing as fancy involving lemons though. salt, pepper garlic.

now i remove the carcass and bake the pieces. last time it had bread crumbs and sprinkle cheese. YUM.
i have 4 carcasses in the freezer, i need to come up with someintg to cook besides chicken soup.
Painless Mama said…
Dad - Was it "the best damn chicken in the state"

HA!

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