Oven Roasted Chicken

OK, so I know, the bird looks a little spread-eagled in this picture.  But give me a break - it was my first real roasted chicken!  I actually decided to roast it today to practice for the Big Day on Thursday when I have to cook my first turkey.  If this is any indication what the turkey is going to be like, I can't wait!  This chicken is T-A-S-T-Y.

Not long ago Barbara (the same lovely lady whom you have to thank for the yummy Fajita Soup recipe) was also telling me how much she liked "roll over" meals.  You know, meals that have leftovers that can be used in the next meal, and so on and so forth. I love this idea!  This single chicken than I paid about a dollar a pound for (which came out to about $4.50) is going to take us through three meals this week.  Even though there's a million ideas you could use, here's what we're going to do:

Meal #1 - Roast chicken with vegetables on the side.
Meal #2 - Pull of the rest of the chicken from the carcass and use to make Creamy Chicken Taquitos
Meal #3 - Boil the carcass to make chicken stock and use that to make some soup.  Instructions and ideas on the soups to come later this week!

Even if you're a working mom or just don't have a lot of time for dinner prep on weekdays, roast the chicken on a weekend and prepare the rest for your weekdays meals.


Oven Roasted Chicken

1 whole chicken, giblets removed
Nature's Seasons seasoning blend  or Salt & Pepper
1 large stalk celery
5-6 cloves of garlic
1/2 large onion
5 Tbsp butter

Rinse thawed chicken, inside and out.  Make sure to remove all the giblets and the neck.  Place on a large cutting board with the legs up, like so:

 Gather your other ingredients, and if you haven't started preheating the oven yet, go ahead and turn it on to 350 degrees.

 Peel 2 large cloves of garlic.  Cut them in half and slide them under the skin on top of the chicken.

Sprinkle Natures Seasons all over the chicken.  Pour some into your hand and use it to rub the inside of the chicken as well.  (I filled my hand as shown and did it about 3 times.)

 Next peel and cut the remaining garlic cloves in half.  Cut the onion half into 2 pieces.  I also ended up cutting the celery in half again just to make it easier to get into the center cavity of the chicken.

Now stuff all those veggies in side.  I put in half the onion, half the garlic, half the celery, and the repeated.  I don't know that this really makes the flavors distribute more evenly, but it made me feel better.

 Next, cut up 2 tablespoons of your butter into 8 small cubes.  Stuff 4 under the skin on top next to the garlic, 2 in the rump opening and 2 in the neck opening of the chicken.

  Place the chicken in your roasting pan the same side up as before.  Now we're going to "truss" the chicken, which means to tie that baby up so it'll be less likely to dry out the legs or wings while baking.  I used about a 3 to 4-ft. long piece of cross-stitch thread, but any non-melting, thick string will work.  Start by typing one of of the string to the end of the right leg.

Next, wrap it around the chicken at an angle towards the left side and bring it under the back so it comes out where the wing is on the right.  Pass the string over the right wing, securing it to the body.  Bring the string straight across to left side, securing that wing as well by passing the string underneath the chicken again and bringing it out by the right wing.

Make sure the string has been pulled firm and the wings are now secured to the body of the chicken.  Cross it back over the top of the chicken and wrap it a couple of times around the left leg.

The last thing you need to do is secure the legs together.  I did this by wrapping the end of the string in a figure eight pattern around the two legs till the string ran out.  This saved me from having to tie another knot and made it easier to get off after the chicken was done cooking.

Now your chicken is trussed and ready for baking.  Before you pop it in the oven, cut three more pats of butter (about a tablespoon each) and place them on the pan close to the chicken.

Roast in the oven for about 20 minutes per pound.  Since I had a 4 1/2 pound bird, that means I roasted for 90 minutes.  There's no need to baste during cooking.  When the chicken comes out, baste with the melted butter and juices in the bottom of the pan.  Cover with foil and let it "rest" for 30 minutes before serving.  This is by far the hardest part of roasting a chicken because is smells so dang good.  Horse Lover was having a hard time waiting for a sample, so she set the timer so we wouldn't forget when it was finally ready.

 

 Finally, there are two things you should do before serving this chicken.  First, don't forget to cut off the string.  Second, I chose to cut out the garlic from under the skin.  If you really, REALLY like garlic you could skip this part, but I didn't want the kids taking a bite of it by accident.  They like garlic, but probably not that much.

All in all, it was a very successful venture on my part!  I'm thinking this is something I should do a couple of times a month.  Not only is it cheaper than just buying boneless skinless chicken breasts, the meat pulled of is juicy and moist, and the extras will make a great dinner later this week!