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.

Lemon and 40 clove Garlic Roast Chicken...stuff them up its butt!

Continuing with all things lemon here is a twist on roast chicken. I used a lot of whole peeled garlic and included lemons in the pan itself to get a nice citrus tang to the pan juices. Definitely is tart but still very tasty.

Lemon and 40 Clove Garlic Roast Chicken

• 2 roasting chickens, about 5-6 lbs each
• 8 lemons
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 T thyme
• 2 c cubed carrots
• 4-5 medium white potatoes quartered
• salt, pepper
• olive oil
• 1/2 - 1 c water, white wine or broth

Preheat oven to 425. Wash and clean the chickens. Dry them. With cut one lemon into 4 slices. Remaining lemons cut in half.

For each chicken: Salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Sprinkle in approx 1 t thyme. Add 3-4 lemon halves and 6 cloves of garlic. Slip fingers between skin and breast meat. Insert 2 lemons and 2 cloves garlic on each breast of the chicken. Fold wings under, truss and tie legs together. Lightly oil the chicken with the olive oil. Salt and Pepper the top and bottom of chicken. Sprinkle remaining thyme over the two chickens.

Place the celery stalks in the center of large roasting pan. Place chickens on top of the celery. Add remaining lemons, cut side down around the chickens. Put in the oven and roast for 15 minutes.

Toss remaining cloves of garlic, carrots and potatoes with 1T olive oil. Add 1 t sea salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste. At the end of the 15 minutes remove the roasting pan. Add the vegie mix around the chickens. Insert thermometer or oven probe to the thickest leg of the largest chicken.

Lower oven to 325. Roast until thermometer reaches 170. Baste as needed if your pan starts to dry out. (The potatoes soak up a lot of pan juices so you do need to monitor).

At the end of the cooking time remove the chickens and put on platter, tenting to let stand 10-15 minutes. Spoon out the vegies and put in serving bowl. Add additional broth to pan juices and a thickener to make a gravy.

Roast Chicken

Simple roast chicken, how hard can that be? Never did one in all they years I have been cooking. (Mostly because I am not a fan of chicken but do it to appease the fam). I have done more than a few turkey's but this was new territory. A quick search of Food TV and I found a couple that I could use as a reference point for a recipe I would call my own.

The recipe:
Simple Roast Chicken
2 approx 4 lb roasting hens
3 lemons
1 head of garlic
large carrot
2 T dried thyme
salt
pepper
4 large sprigs of fresh sage

For Herb butter:
about 3/4 stick butter at room temp.
1 t dry thyme
1 t dry basil
1 T dry parsley
1 T fresh chopped garlic
Mix and set aside while preparing the chickens

Clean out the chicken off the various body parts. Rinse inside and out with cold water. Pat dry.

Slice one lemon into 4 thin slices. Slice the other two lemons in half.

Generously salt and pepper each cavity. Add dry Thyme. Split carrot and put 1 piece in each cavity. Crush the garlic cloves, divide between each chicken. Stuff the lemon halves into each cavity. Slip fingers between breasts and the skin. Slip one slice of lemon into each slit so that each breast has a lemon slice centered in it. The resulting bulges will make the chicken look like some sort of mutant gas mask...you want it that way. Tuck one sprig of the fresh sage into each chicken.

Tuck and fold wings under the chicken. Wrap a string under the wings and then pull towards the legs. Wrap one end around a leg then draw legs together and tie to secure.

Rub chicken with the herb butter. Arrange the remaining sage leaves on top of the chicken. Salt and Pepper.

Bake at 400 until meat thermometer in thickest part of the thigh reads 165F. I use a convection roast with thermometer probe to help take the guess work out and getter a better browned and crisped skin. It should take about 1 1/2 hours to get it to that temp. Check that juices run clear before removing from oven.

All trussed up and ready to go. See...with the lemon slices under the skin it does look like a WWII gas mask!

There we go all done, thank gawd for non-stick roasters and racks. I swear if I didn't have that option I would rarely roast as with regular pans it is just a pain to get them all clean. I do two chickens at once as that way I get one for dinner tonight and another for dinner later in the week when I am way to busy to do much more than a quick reheat.