Friday Favorite; An Easy One Dish Roasted Chicken

Okay friends… anyone can do this. I promise.

Don’t let your self-conscious get the best of you. Just like the movie Ratatouille, healing “anyone can cook” or something like that.

So here we go.

Chicken, (disclosure – first remove the package insert from the inner cavity), lemon, potatoes, onion, garlic, thyme, salt and pepper.

Now, let’s get cooking’.

Cut your Lemon in quarters and stuff it in the empty cavity (okay — we are all grown up’s here no comments from the peanut gallery) along with the garlic.

Coat your chicken in an 80’s style sun-bathing coat of oil. Just use Olive Oil instead of Johnson and Johnson’s. Then liberally apply your salt and pepper. Don’t be prissy about that Salt and Pepper. Go for it. Also dice up your potatoes and slice, on the thick side, your onion. Apply a healthy dose of olive oil with salt and pepper to those as well. Then place a few sprigs of thyme in for good measure. Finally, I use plain dental floss (not the minty kind) to tie up those hind legs. Fantastic.

And now you are “okay to go” (a quote from the movie Contact – have you scene it? It is an all time personal favorite). Now park that bird in a 9×13 roasting pan.  And roast for about 1 hour 15 minutes at 425 degrees. You want to see the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and a thigh. OR

I keep a handy dandy kitchen thermometer in my hollister ready to test and make sure the breast meat is at 165 degrees. Once at this desired temperature, remove the chicken to a platter, cover with aluminum foil and allow to nap for 10 minutes.

Then go for it, carve your bird as you wish. I like to carve each breast off whole and divvy up the spoils.

Bon appetite…

Not so fast. When you are finished with your dinner, save that bird carcass to make chicken stock to freeze in ice cube trays.….. more about that later.

Thanks Modchik for reminding me ice cube trays are no longer for frozen baby food.

Have a great December weekend friends.