The Whole Bird

I got a free chicken at Earth Fare today, and this is what I did with it:

Roasted Chicken

1 whole chicken

1 lemon

1 small onion

2 or 3 cloves garlic

salt and pepper

oil

This is all you need!  I also used celery and rosemary because I had some, but it's not necessary.  If you've never cooked a whole bird, don't be scared.

First, preheat the oven to 450.  Then get everything ready.  Get the chicken out of the refrigerator, cut the lemon into quarters or slices, cut the onion into chunks, and put plenty of salt and pepper in a bowl with some olive oil.  Get out your pan:  I'm using a cast iron skillet; you could also use a roasting pan or even a cookie sheet (you might want to line it with foil for easier cleanup).  Now you have everything all set before you get your hands into the raw chicken. 

Unwrap the bird and put it either in a bowl or straight on your pan.  The idea here is to season the chicken by rubbing it with the salt, pepper, oil, lemons etc...  If you're squeamish just rub salt, pepper, and oil all over the chicken, squeeze the lemon all over it, then stuff everything else inside and you're done.  If you don't mind getting up close and personal with your dinner, use your hand to separate the skin from the meat and slide some seasonings under the skin.  I put lemon slices, sprigs of rosemary, salt, pepper, and garlic under the skin on the top and bottom.  The rest of the lemon was squeezed over the outside along with salt, pepper and oil and rubbed in.  I put the chopped up onion, squeezed lemon, celery, more rosemary and garlic inside the cavity of the bird.  Don't forget to pull the gizzards out of the cavity first ( although I know from experience that it won't really hurt anything if you do). 

Put the chicken in the oven at 450 degrees for 15 minutes, then turn it down to 350 degrees until it's done.  Most birds are around 3 1/2 pounds and will need to roast for 1 hour and 20-30 minutes total.  If you have a bigger chicken add 20 minutes per pound to the time.  The method of starting the oven at a high heat and then turning it down to finish cooking ensures that the finished bird will be nice and juicy.  The high temperature makes the skin get crispy and seals in the juices.   If you check on it and see that the top is looking really brown, cover the bird loosely with a piece of foil while it finishes.  You can be sure the meat is done when you use a thermometer and it reaches an internal temperature of 165.  Otherwise you can look at the juices.  When the juices run clear or buttery yellow, it's done.  If you see rosy colored juice, it's not done.  Leave the chicken under it's foil for at least 10 minutes before you slice it.  This allows the juice to settle in so it won't all run out when you cut into it. 

We had this yummy roasted chicken with our free mashed potatoes and free carrots. 

   

 

 

Comments

[jennifer cantwell]

so, i made mine last night! i used a combination of sonya's recipe and comments by jehan. i didn't have any rosemary (how did that happen?) so i used tarragon! i used some homemade veggie/turkey broth in the cast iron....and added some unpeeled garlic cloves (great idea!). the only thing i didn't take time to do was reduce all the delicious juices for a sauce......next time. we had it with the potatoes, salad and roasted fennel w/ parmesan cheese. the chicken was so moist and delicious! i would've liked the skin to be a little more crispy....but i'm just getting used to the dysfunction of my super old oven.....so next time:) all in all yum!

[sweetie pie]

Be Brave Anna! You can do it.

[Anna]

I always swore that I would never cook a whole chicken. Maybe I'll be brave now. Thanks for the inspiration.

[Jehan El-Jourbagy]

I forgot to mention a very important ingredient which you had in your recipe: garlic. Along with the white wine and chicken stock, I also added about 15 unpeeled cloves of garlic (the recipe called for 40 -- I didn't have that many hanging around).

Once the chicken finished cooking, I removed it and the garlic to a platter and then reduced the liquid, pouring some over the chicken on the platter. As we ate, we peeled the garlic and spread it on french bread, which was our side as well as a light salad with a lime dressing.

[sweetie pie]

That sounds sooooo good!

[Jehan El-Jourbagy]

Thanks for sharing. This is what I did with our free Earth Fare chicken:

I rubbed olive oil on the body and then I rubbed a mix of dried sage, thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper on the skin. I then put a quartered lime in the cavity along with the remainder of the dry rub. Then it was supposed to sit for two to 24 hours, but I kept on going since we were hungry.

I placed the chicken in a casserole dish and poured in one and half cups of chicken stock and one cup of dry white wine. In the bird went uncovered into an oven set at 375 until the liquid boiled at which point I covered it. It cooked/steamed for about 25 minutes.

I then increased the heat to 450 and uncovered the dish for another 60 minutes.

It was the best whole chicken we've ever had -- moist and flavorful. (As for the carrots and mashed potatoes, we ate them with steak yesterday . . .)