Perfect Roasted Chicken

April 11, 2012

As promised yesterday on Facebook, I am writing a post about my chilly springtime dinner I prepared last night. And let me tell you, it did not disappoint. Plenty of noises like such- “mmmmmm” and “oh, yeah” came about. Comfort food for me is not macaroni and cheese or lasagne or French toast, etc. Comfort food for me is the following: perfectly roasted chicken with steamed carrots and truffle crusted potatoes. Oh, yeah.

And the thing about this post that I would love you to take the most with you is how to make a perfect roasted chicken. It is a quintessential thing that everyone should have in their repertoire, and not to mention once you’ve done it a few times you will be a pro!

So go buy yourself a little chicken (a roaster or a fryer, either one will be fine), it will be most likely about 4-5 pounds. Set aside a few hours for your first night of roasting the bird and you will be so surprised at how easy and deeeeeelicious it turns out!

**Look out for another post later this week on the truffle potatoes!!

Perfect Roasted Chicken
gluten free, egg free, nut free

Serves 4-5

1 4-5 pound roasting chicken (may be labeled “roaster” or “fryer”)
10 carrots, peeled and cut in half
1 lemon, zested and cut into quarters
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 sprigs rosemary, stripped and leaves minced
2-3 T. olive oil or softened butter
1 small onion, peeled and quartered
salt and pepper

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 425. Rinse chicken inside and out and pat dry with paper towels. Place on roasting rack set inside roasting pan (** OR an all metal cooling rack set inside a rimmed baking sheet). Place the carrots underneath the roasting rack, or surrounding the rack.

In a small bowl, mix together the lemon zest, 3 cloves minced garlic, minced rosemary and the 2-3 T. olive oil or softened butter. Add a big pinch of salt and some cracks of pepper.

Next, using your finger, make a little pocket between the skin and the meat of the breast. Make sure you leave the skin attached at the breast bone. So, at the end you will have 2 pockets, one over each individual breast. Using a spoon, scoop up some of the lemon-garlic-rosemary mixture and shimmy into the pockets, placing equal amounts on both sides. Now massage the skin to move this mixture as far back as possible.

Stuff the cavity with the quartered lemon and the quartered onion and drizzle the top of the chicken with another 1-2 T. of olive oil. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper and pop in the preheated 425 oven.

Roast at this temperature 15 minutes then turn the pan around (for even browning). Roast another 15 minutes at 425 then turn the oven down to 350 and roast another 45 minutes or so until a thermometer inserted into the thigh (but NOT touching bone!) reads 165-170.

Remove the chicken from the oven and lightly tent with foil. Allow it to sit at least 15 minutes and even up to 30 (it’s true! Trust me, it will stay hot and this extra time allows you to finish up the rest of dinner).

Lastly, slice the chicken (wings first, then drumstick/thigh, lastly breast. But save the body for chicken broth or soup! Wrap it well and throw it in the freezer to use later).