Roast Chicken

I finally conquered one of my cooking bucket list items-roast chicken.  I had never made a roast chicken before-the task seemed quite daunting.  Well, one day I when I was doing my grocery shopping, whole chickens happened to be on sale so I decided to go ahead and buy one.  Since I made this just for two, I bought one of the smaller ones-it was a 4 pound chicken.  We enjoyed this so much that I think next time I will definitely be buying a bigger chicken...I would love to serve this for company and I would love to have tons for leftovers-it was that good!

The outside was perfectly crispy, the vegetables roasted perfectly, and the inside was tender and moist.  Making this was not nearly as difficult as I thought it would have been-really the thing I had the most difficulty with was removing the giblets from the inside of the chicken-yuck!  Luckily my wonderful husband was willing help out with that! 

Basically, once you chop your veggies, you set everything in the pan and let the oven do the work for you.  My chicken cooked in about 1 hour 10 minutes, so I would definitely recommend having a heat thermometer on hand to check the temperatures.  I started it with an hour on the timer and then increased the time by 10 more minutes and it was perfectly cooked. 

I used red and yukon gold potatoes, Brussels spouts, yellow onion and carrots because that is what I had on hand and because we really like Brussels sprouts.  Go ahead and use vegetables that you like.  Just make sure that you have enough vegetables to cover the bottom of the pan so they don't burn.

Roast Chicken

1 (5 to 6 pound) roasting chicken

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 large bunch fresh thyme, plus 20 sprigs

1 lemon, halved

1 head garlic, cut in half crosswise

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, melted

1 large yellow onion, thickly sliced

4 carrots cut into 2-inch chunks

2-3 Yukon gold or red potatoes, cut into 2-inch chunks

Vegetables of your choice, cut into same size chunks (i.e. Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, fennel)

Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Remove the giblets from the inside of the cavity. Rinse the chicken. Remove any excess fat and pat the outside of the chicken dry. Generously salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the bunch of thyme, both halves of lemon, and the garlic. Brush the outside of the chicken with butter and season well with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken (so they do not burn). Place the onions, carrots, and additional vegetables in a roasting pan-make sure to cover the entire bottom of the roasting pan so that the vegetables do not burn. Toss with salt, pepper, 20 sprigs of thyme, and olive oil. Spread around the bottom of the roasting pan and place the chicken on top.

Roast the chicken for 1 1/2 hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Use a digital thermometer if desired to test temperature of chicken (it should read 160 degrees when done).  Remove the chicken and vegetables to a platter and cover with aluminum foil for about 20 minutes. Carve the chicken and serve with the vegetables.


Source: Ina Garten