Don’t Be Chicken
Nothing says Julia Child more than a chicken roasting in your oven, the house perfumed with lemon, garlic and thyme. Never attempted to roast your own chicken and rely on store bought rotisserie? Try my method just once and you will forever be transformed. To me, roasting a chicken is almost medicinal. I find cutting and chopping, the stuffing of garlic and herbs, to be therapeutic. And you can’t really mess it up if your oven is in good working order, your knife sharp.
You will need:
- 1 3-5 lb chicken, preferably organic and free-range
- 1 head garlic
- 1 lemon, sliced in half
- sea salt
- black pepper
- 1 tbsp butter, cut into small chunks
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme
Preheat your oven to 425. Remove chicken from package and remove and throw away giblets from the inside cavity. Wash chicken with cool water inside and out and pat dry. Stuff the sliced lemon, the garlic head, thyme and half the butter chunks into the cavity of the chicken. Stuff the remainder of the butter underneath the chicken skin on the outside of the bird and sprinkle the whole thing liberally with sea salt and pepper.
Place chicken in a roasting pan or casserole dish and bake for about 90 minutes, or until juices run clear when sliced into. When done, remove chicken from the oven and cover loosely with tin foil, forming a tent around the dish. Let sit for 10-15 minutes before serving. Before serving, remove lemon from the inside of the cavity. The garlic will have roasted itself and can just be squeezed out from the peel.
Another huge reason I love roasting my own chickens is because it makes for simply stellar leftovers. Chicken sandwiches and salads can be had all week and I love to even throw bits of leftover shredded chicken breast into omelets for breakfast.
Bon appetit!
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Sounds great but …. don’t throw out the giblets!!! That poor chicken went to a lot of effort to grow those parts and the least we can do is eat them!!!
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