I'm determined to find a set of recipes that I can rotate into a schedule for my family (if you can't tell from recent postings). It can be hard to find time to cook at the end of a long day, but I think it will be extremely important as Franklin grows up for us to have that quality time together. Yesterday, I tried cooking a whole chicken for the first time. Yes, buying a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store is easier. However, I like the fact that I can control the ingredients used on the chicken myself. And nothing beats the visual reward of pulling a perfectly browned, crispy-skinned chicken out of the oven!
I used a recipe from Barefoot Contessa (the chicken queen) with only slight modifications:
I used a recipe from Barefoot Contessa (the chicken queen) with only slight modifications:
Ingredients
1 (5 to 6 pound) whole roasting chicken
Kosher salt (I used gray sea 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 (I used baby carrots instead)
2 bulbs of fennel, tops removed, and cut into wedges
1 bag parsnips cut into chunks
Olive oil
Directions
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
Remove the chicken giblets. Rinse the chicken inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pin feathers and pat the outside dry. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the bunch of thyme, both halves of lemon. Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string (NOTE: I did not have kitchen string and chose to neglect this step as a result) and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken. Place the onions, carrots, parsnips, garlic and fennel in a roasting pan. 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. Remove the chicken and vegetables to a platter and cover with aluminum foil for about 20 minutes. Slice the chicken onto a platter and serve it with the vegetables.
Here's the result:
Olive oil
Directions
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
Remove the chicken giblets. Rinse the chicken inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pin feathers and pat the outside dry. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the bunch of thyme, both halves of lemon. Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string (NOTE: I did not have kitchen string and chose to neglect this step as a result) and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken. Place the onions, carrots, parsnips, garlic and fennel in a roasting pan. 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. Remove the chicken and vegetables to a platter and cover with aluminum foil for about 20 minutes. Slice the chicken onto a platter and serve it with the vegetables.
Here's the result:
Do you guys eat parsnips? I love them. If you've never had a parsnip, I think you're missing out. You can find them in the grocery store near the carrots, they actually look like white carrots. You treat them just like carrots too, and they get sweet and juicy when they are roasted as well. Super yummy and good for you too. I served the chicken with Yukon Gold mashed potatoes, by the way. Frank seemed to enjoy it! This was one of those recipes, like a pork tenderloin recipe I got from L years ago that I still make all.the.time., that you can fix the night before or in the morning, and just pull out of the fridge and put into an oven at the end of the day. An hour and a half later, dinner's ready.
You're a regular Betty Crocker over here! Cut it out, you're making me feel bad about my lazy "throw it in the crockpot" self. Which reminds me..have you done a crockpot whole chicken? That's one of my EZ favorites. You've put me onto parsnips! Gotta try that.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to agree with Marina on this one! Knock it off making the rest of us feel lazy! BTW...I'm a huge crockpot/casserole person! Super easy...and kid friendly (usually)!!
ReplyDeleteI was totally going to try the whole chicken in the crock pot thing. I pulled it out, took all of the ingredients out of the fridge, and THEN realized that my crock pot was too small to hold the chicken. Gotta get a bigger crock pot. But we are ALL about that!! I haven't gone back to work yet, btw, and I only have one kid who sleeps very well in a swing - so cooking has been a little easier than it will be once I go back Monday. We'll see if I keep this up!
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