Perfect Roast Chicken
This time, the perfect roast chicken eluded me. Next time I will use the perfect recipe from Barefoot Contessa’s first cookbook. This time I did not cook the chicken long enough so I had to elicit help from my trusty microwave. Even so, there’s nothing like a roasted chicken with potatoes soaked in delicious garlic butter.
***Warning***: Naked chicken pictures ahead…
Jenny’s Near-Perfect Roast Chicken
Ingredients:
1 young chicken (about 7-10 pounds)
1 lemon, washed and quartered
4-6 cloves of garlic
Garlic butter (see this recipe)
3 cups of potatoes (I use fingerlings, cut into 1-inch pieces)
3 tablespoons of olive oil or canola oil
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Wash and chop the potatoes. Toss them in a roasting pan with the olive oil. Wash and dry the chicken and remove the giblets. Save the giblets (I eat them! Roast them with the chicken for about 40 minutes) or toss them. Place the quartered lemon and the garlic cloves inside the chicken cavity.
Separate the skin from the chicken with your fingers and rub the chicken with the garlic butter using a pastry brush. Also brush the outside of the chicken skin with garlic butter:
Roast the potatoes for 30 minutes. Then remove the roasting pan and carefully place the chicken on top of the potatoes. Roast the chicken for 30 minutes then turn the chicken over. Roast the chicken again for about an hour until it is cooked through (test by cutting a slit in the thickest part of the chicken breast). Remove the chicken and potatoes and let stand for 20 minutes covered with aluminum foil (leave a small gap so steam can escape). Cut the chicken into serving pieces (drumsticks, breast and back meat) and serve with the roasted potatoes. **You can remove the lemon and garlic from the chicken cavity and save the chicken bones for soup**
This roast chicken also tastes delicious with a sauteed green vegetable (asparagus, brussel sprouts) or a green salad (try this one).
Enjoy!
February 27th, 2007 at 10:52 pm
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