Everyone needs to know how to roast a chicken! Even if you didn't know it...
After you roast your own chicken successfully you'll rarely buy one of the rotisserie chickens at CostCo (unless you're like me and simply can't help yourself when walking through the aisles at CostCo and smell that buttery-smokey aroma eminating from the back of the store - oh yeah, I'm a weak person).
Here's how I do it at home ...
I start by washing the chicken (removing all the beautiful stuff inside the cavity - ick!!!), wash my hands thoroughly and gather just a few fresh ingredients...
And get to cutting...
The onion, garlic and lemon just need a chop or two...
You want to get them just small enough to fit a few of each ingredient into the cavity... there's no science to this though...
You can add more lemon and less onion... you can do more garlic and less lemon... it's a personal taste thing...
Assemble your bowl of goodies...
And grab that chicken...
Stand it on end and start by generously tossing in some salt and pepper...
Stuff to your heart's desire... a piece of lemon, half a garlic head, your thyme stems, a piece of onion and maybe another piece of lemon. It's your pick...
In the above picture you see that I'm lifting the skin over the breast and stuffing some pats of butter under there. Massage it a bit and move it around. This will provide some extra moisture and flavor that you don't want to miss! Believe me... and repeat on the other breast...
Place your chicken on the roasting pan (I use a cookie sheet when I roast more than one at a time - which I do often) and drizzle with some more kosher salt and black pepper... and then a tablespoon or two of canola oil. The canola oil will help create that nice golden brown color and crispy texture on the outside of the chicken. Yummy!
You start the chicken off at a very high temp and after 15 minutes reduce the heat for about an hour. Check the temp so that you don't overcook it... "done" chicken is "done" when it hits 165 degrees F.
When I can find whole chickens at a great price at the grocery store ($0.29 - $0.79 a pound) then I will buy a few and roast them all at the same time. It's always great to have some freshly roasted chicken (shredded and stored in the refrigerator) for a quick meal during the week.
PLUS I love, love, love chicken salad sandwiches at lunchtime! Easy lunch to take to work...
What's YOUR favorite way to use a freshly roasted chicken?! Tonight I'm using the meat from one of the chickens to make a yummy chicken noodle soup with "Gramma's Homemade Noodles"... perfect dinner for a rainy day!
Quick and Easy Roast Chicken
Recipe courtesy Lori Tisdale
Ingredients:
whole roasting chicken, 5-7 pounds
garlic head, halved
lemon, quartered
white onion, quartered
small bunch fresh thyme
Canola oil
3 tbsp butter, softened
Kosher salt / pepper
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Cut in half – lemon, onion and garlic head; set aside
Unpackage chicken and remove giblets
Rinse chicken generously, inside and out
With paper towel, pat outside of chicken to dry it, place in roasting pan
Slide fingers under skin between chicken breasts, separate skin from breasts
Slide 3-4 pats of butter under breast skin
Salt and pepper inside of chicken, generously
Stuff into chicken: two halves of lemon, onion, garlic heads and 3-4 stems of thyme
Drizzle top of chicken with 2 tbsp canola oil and salt/pepper generously
Roast in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.
Reduce heat to 350 degrees and continue to roast for 60-75 minutes
Chicken is done with temp, inserted behind wing, hits 165 degrees.
Set aside, cover with foil. Rest for at least 10 minutes before carving.
enjoy your time in the kitchen...
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