I love baking a whole chicken because it looks great on the dinner table, tastes great and the left overs are great for making chicken noodle soup.
Ingredients:
- 1 (5 to 6 pound) roasting chicken
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 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
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 onion slices, both halves of lemon, and all the garlic.
- Lift the skin of the chicken and using your fingers, rub butter on the chicken meat. Try to get this all over the breast, thigh and leg meat. Sprinkle again with salt and pepper on the outside.
- Place the whole chicken upside down in the baking pan – that way the juices flow to the breast and keep it moist.
- Place the onions and carrots around the chicken in a roasting pan. Place any extra onion slices on top of the chicken.
- 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.
- Carefully pour juices from pan into gravy boat and serve as well – nice alternative to gravy if you serve with potatoes too.
I’ll see you at the table!