Recipe Wednesday!

One of my "Go Tos" for one meal that can turn into  is Roasted Chicken.  I have many friends who have told me that they are intimidated by roasting a chicken.  They shouldn't be!  It is super easy and FUN!

Some tricks before I give you the recipe.  First...you need a roasting pan with a wire rack.  Especially if you plan on roasting veggies in with the chicken.  If you don't want to buy a roasting pan, you can get a foil roasting pan.  It works, but you should throw it away.  If you plan on getting into roasting things more (chicken, Duck, Turkey, veggies), then I would get a good roasting pan.  I bought mine at Costco and LOVE it.

Next, I would get some latex medical gloves (unpowdered).  You can get them in the pharmacy section of your store.  You need to really get inside the chicken and under the skin and sometimes the feel of cold, raw chicken bother some people.

Thirdly, Some people get really intimidated about carving a chicken (or turkey and duck), so they don't buy whole chickens.  Whole chickens can be super inexpensive and like I said above, you can make several meals with it.  If carving it freaks you out, here is a good carving map.  I use it!  And don't worry if you are messy with your carving.  It takes time to master.

Ok. are you ready?  No?  Oh well, here we go.

You will need a whole chicken, two lemons, fresh rosemary, One cup of butter (room temp), And salt and pepper.  Easy so far, right?

First, make sure you take the giblets out of the chicken and then fry them up and give them to my SIL.  Or just throw them away.

Then, with a paper towel, pat dry the chicken, inside and out.

Don't forget to preheat your oven to 400 degrees!

Next, take your room temp butter and put it in a bowl with zest of two lemons, rosemary (finely cut up), and salt and pepper to taste.

Time for your handy, dandy latex gloves!  Slap those babies on your hands.  Now the fun part.  Mix up the butter mixture and rub it genrously all over the bird.  If you are feeling adventurous, you can even seperate the skin from the meat, oh so gently, and put some of the butter mixture there.  That gives you super crispy skin!  But you have to be careful to not let the skin tear too much.

Also, don't forget to rub the butter INSIDE the cavity.  Many people forget to season the inside, but it does make a difference in taste.

Now, add some more WHOLE rosemary sprigs and quartered lemon to the inside cavity.  I roasted mine with butternut squash and sweet potatoes in the bottom of the pan.

Roast for 1 hour and 15 mins (check and make sure it is at least 165 degrees in the breast).

And of course I didn't take a pic of the chicken when it was out of the oven.  Looks like I will have to make it again then add it later!

With the leftovers you can always make chicken soup, chicken wraps, or chicken salad!  I will post those recipes next week.

And duck is on the menu in the next few days....that one is a little tricky but I will post my results as well!

MANGIA. MANGIA!!!!