Andy went up to Portland this last weekend for a fencing tournament. So while he was gone, I roasted my first chicken. Granted it was one of the hottest days in 2012 so far but that did not stop me. I turned on the fan and opened the windows.
I looked at several recipes before turning on the oven. I was looking for something really simple and easy. I pulled a few different recipes together to come up with my own. So basically it went like this:
Turn oven on to 450 degrees
pat chicken dry with papertowels
mix: olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and some herbs (you choose)
peel one clove of garlic and quarter half an onion – stuff into carcas (first take out nasty bag and other things in that hole)
rub chicken with olive oil/seasoning mix
place in baking dish with breast down
add some water to baking dish
Bake until chicken is at the safe temperture of 165 degrees. Then let chicken rest for awhile. Go do something else. DO NOT CUT CHICKEN! This is important. Otherwise all the juices will run and you will end up with dry chicken.
I ate the drumsticks immediately. They are my favorite. I fed some chicken to the cats. They loved it. I ate a chicken sandwich, salads topped with chicken, etc. So good. And the roasted chicken cost less than $5.50. Cheaper than the grocery store rotisserie chickens too.
Jean, my GF, has a dead-simple recipe for the tastiest chicken I’ve ever eaten. We save lots of cash by buying whole chickens and roasting them up, and then eating them for a week — plain the first night, then sandwiches, then tacos or enchiladas, etc. — and it’s very, very good.