Sparks from the Kitchen

What can you say about roast chicken? It’s delicious, it smells amazing, you have leftovers that you can do a ton of things with (see subsequent posts) and it’s generally pretty easy.

I roasted what I believe is my 4th chicken ever this past weekend (I have to do this more often). It was certainly the largest weighing in at about 7.5 lbs. My local grocery store had them on sale for $.99/lb last week so I bought one and invited my Mom and Grandmother over for a Sunday evening roast chicken supper and Scrabble game. We’re all cut-throat scrabble players and get together often and play. It’s so much fun.  We use all of the words we’re not supposed to-proper names, abbreviations, foreign words-whatever we can as long as it’s able to be identified by someone else playing. It’s way more fun that way.

So while we had some appys of cheese and crackers, olives, hummus and some wine we played and laughed and argued over words. And the chicken roasted. And it gave off that gorgeous smell that only a roast chicken can. And then before we knew it the chicken was ready and it was delicious. Crispy skin, tender moist meat.  Just the way we all hope that they will be. I didn’t bother putting it on a pretty plate for a photo. We just cut right into it and served ourselves. Here’s how to do it:

Roast Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1 7lb roasting chicken (I used a Perdue Oven Stuffer Roaster)
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 medium onions, sliced into 1/2 inch rounds
• 1 large lemon
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 425. Let chicken and butter stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Remove the gizzards and the popup timer if there is one. Rinse under cold water, inside and out, and pat dry with paper towels.
2. In a roasting pan place the onions in 2 rows touching each other. 
3. Rub butter all over the chicken. Season inside and out with salt and pepper. Put the lemon, thyme and garlic into the cavity, tie the legs with kitchen twine. Place on top of the onions.
4. Roast for about 30 minutes-you’ll notice the skin start to get nice and brown–this is what you want to happen–then reduce heat to 340 and cook until a thermometer reaches 180 in the breast and/or 190 in the thigh.  When poked with a fork the juices should run clear. It took about 2 hours for mine.
5. Remove the chicken from the oven and tent with foil in the roasting pan (not touching the skin or it will get soggy). Allow the chicken to rest for at least 15 minutes. Carve and serve, discarding the lemon, thyme and garlic.

You  may serve the onions along with the chicken or use them to make a gravy as outlined in the original recipe from Martha Stewart which I’ve changed up quite a bit. Perfect Roast Chicken from Martha Stewart Living, September 1997.