Intimidated by the idea of roasting a whole bird? Fear not! You can do this!
(And your chicken is going to be tastier than that rotisserie chicken you usually buy. )
Here goes:
-take the plastic off the bird. Put the bird on a plate to catch the liquids—you’ll throw those out.
-There’s a bag inside the bird. Yes, yes there is. That’s called the giblets bag. If this is your first time roasting a chicken, just throw it out. That’s advanced stuff. If you consider yourself advanced, well, you know what to do. If you also have a chicken neck, add it to the pan, cook it, and put it in the scraps bag when your chicken cools.
-Put your bird in a small roasting pan, breast side up. I like the small/medium sized Le Creuset bakeware you can get at Marshalls/Homegoods. Choose any pan with extra space for the chicken juices. Those liquids are culinary gold.
-WASH YOUR HANDS. Anytime you touch the bird WASH YOUR HANDS. It’s a lot. It’s also necessary for food safety.
-Put something flavorful in your chicken’s body cavity, from your Misfits Market Box, of course. Almost anything works. Just pick 1 to start.
-1 or 2 lemons or an orange, cut in half.
-1 onion in big chunks.
-all the leaves from your weekly bunch of celery.
-several peeled garlic cloves.
-If you are roasting this bird to divide into several meals, flip it over so the breast meat is down. Uh huh. Flip it. The breast meat will stay much more juicy. I did this once years ago by accident, and I’ve been cooking “Upside Down Chicken” ever since.
-Now dust with herbs: almost anything green will do. Any combination of the following is just fine: parsley, oregano, thyme, (easy on the) rosemary, sage. Use 2-3 tablespoons total. Don’t worry if some gets in the pan. My favorite: Herbes de Provence, of course!
-add a half-inch to 1 inch liquid to your pan: stock or water with bouillon. I also like to add a decent squirt of lemon juice.
-Cover with foil.
-Roast at 350 degrees for 1 ½ hours. Pull on the leg to see if it’s done. The leg should come loose from the body pretty easily. If the bone comes out in your hand, it’s definitely done.
Well done!!!! You just roasted a whole chicken!! What are you going to do with all that meat? Stock blog coming soon, so save any scraps and bones--don’t throw anything away!
Variants and tips:
-add 1 cup (or 2) dry white wine to the roasting pan before you cook the bird.
-add veggies (potatoes, turnips, carrots, onions, from @MisfitsMarket, of course) around your bird and cook them all at the same time. You want your chunks to be just under or about golf ball sized. If they are too small, they’ll get mushy. This will make your cooking time longer, but if you plan ahead, this is a one pan meal. Or meals.
-If you do the above with veggies and they’re too mushy, turn them into a soup with your immersion blender.