Marinated Roast Chicken

I'm not all about chicken, unfortunately 4/5 of my house loves the silly bird.  So I had to learn to do chicken.  So I can eat it I take the approach load it with flavor, something other than KFCish and its good to go.

This chicken recipe is loosely based on a Barefoot Contessa recipe for chicken, turkey breast and from the Fresh & Easy Markets.  Simple rub is slipped under the skin and allowed to sit 30 minutes before you roast the beasts.  The rub makes enough for two chickens, I always do 2 as it leaves me another whole chicken for later in the week.

Marinated Chicken

2 4-5 lb roasting chickens

• 2 t sea salt
  
• 2 t whole pepper corns
  
• 2 T butter at room temp
  
• 3 T olive oil
  
• 1 T lemon juice or white wine vinegar
  
• 3 T chopped garlic divided.
  
• 1 t dried rosemary (1 T fresh if you have it)
  
• 1 t dried thyme (1T fresh if you have it)
  
• 1 T Grey Poupon style mustard
  
• 1 T whole grain mustard
  

• 2 lemons, cut in half.
  
• Salt and cracked black pepper.
  
• 1 C white wine or lemonade (1/2 water/ 1/2 juice)
  
• 1 can chicken stock
  

Rinse of chickens including the insides.  Remove any giblets or whatever else you find inside.

Combine butter, oil, vinegar, salt, peppercorns, herbs, 1T garlic and Grey Poupon into a mini-food prep and pulse until it blended and herbs are coarse chopped.  Fold in the whole grain mustard.

Carefully insert fingers under the skin and loosen under the breast and along the sides as much as possible.  Use care to not tear the skin as it will not yield a nice browned skin.

Season inside cavity of each chicken with salt and pepper.  Rub 1T garlic in each chicken cavity.  Insert 2 lemon halves into each cavity.

Place 1 heaping tablespoon marinade under each breast.  Massage the marinade under the skin and down the sides until evenly distributed.  Divide remaining marinade and rub all over the chickens.  Fold wings under.  Tie the legs together.  Insert your oven probe or a meat thermometer in the thickest part of the thigh.  Place chickens on rack in roaster.  Add the lemon juice or white wine.  Allow to sit for 30 minutes.

Place chicken in a 425F oven for 15 minutes.  Reduce heat to 350, use convect option if you have it.  If your oven has a probe set internal temp to 170F.  If no probe option then roast until temp is 170F about 60-75 minutes.  While roasting watch the pan drippings, add chicken stock if it begins to dry up too much, I usually use most of the can.  NOTE:Convect does speed up the roasting time, but more importantly it ensures even browning and nice crackly skin.

When chickens are done place on carving board and tent to allow juices to redistribute.  Skim off the fat from the pan drippings and use to make a gravy or reduce down for simple pan sauce.

The hardest part of this recipe is pulling the skin from the chicken to get the cavity needed without tearing the poor bird a new one.