I remember the first time I ever had roasted chicken. It was at a fancy french restaurant and they brought the whole chicken out to us... with the head and everything. Unfortunately, I was not able to try the chicken because of my own personal issues. I have a weird issue with eating meat that looks like what it once was. So I have issues with chicken that looks like a piece of chicken, ot fish that has the head on, or even snail with the shell on. I don't mind seeing it that way before it's cooked, but after? No Way! So I have always been afraid to try roasted chicken, because of course, it comes out of the oven looking like a chicken (minus the head this time). But everytime I see a roasted chicken (even without the head), I think back to the grand culinary adventure I had during my foray into French cuisine.
That all changed this past week. I decided in my quest for new tastes and things to try, I was going to visit my local library. My library has a very good system and internal book transfer process, so I can basically request any book and if it is checked in at any branch I will have it the next day. So last week I requested all the cookbooks by Jamie Oliver, Heidi Swanson, and random authors that I had read about on other people's blogs. The next day I had a stack of about ten books (all the books were not checked in yet). So I am purusing 'The Naked Chef' and enjoying it quite immensly when the hubby enters and mentions the Roast Chicken looks amazing. Seeing as we had a whole young chicken in the freezer, I thought I would attempt it. After all, when something fails we have an amazing selection of restaurants nearby.
So this past Sunday I made my first ever roasted chicken. Yay me! The chicken was so good. It had a fairly strong lemon flavor, which the hubby was not sure of, but which I loved. We also had a fabulous Sweeeet potatoes and I was sooo proud.
The directions from dear Jamie were really simple, but not really directions at all, more like guidance open to interpretation. So here is what I did:
Wash young chicken. Take out the gizzards. Lift up the skin covering the breasts (careful not to tear) and add favorite spices underneath. Flip the chicken over, and lift up skin covering the thighs. Add favorite spices here too. Stuff the middle of the chicken with a half lemon, or stuffing. Place chicken, breast side up, in a roasting pan with a glug of olive oil. Roast at 375 degrees for 40 minutes per pound, until the breast meat and thigh meat register 180 on the meat thermometer.
The spices I used? Let me share:
A palm of salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme, basil and Mrs. dash. I also placed a lemon in the pockets that were created when the skin was lifted. If you want it less lemony, dont put the lemon in the skin pockets (that sounds gross, doesn't it?).
What did I serve it with? Sweeet potatoes! The hubby calls them sweeeet potatoes because they use a sweet potato and are slightly sweet in flavor. You have to imagine the hubby saying this in a surfer kind of voice, like a flashback to 90210 days.
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed
1 large baking russet potato, peeled and cubed
4 small red potatoes, cubed (peel if desired)
1 small onion
3 cloves garlic
a pinch of sugar
Boil potatoes until mostly soft (not quite mashable). Drain and let sit for 5 minutes. Saute onion until translucent then toss it in with the potatoes. Add the sugar and the garlic. Toss these in a roasting pan and bake in the oven at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes, until the potatoes are soft (definitely mashable). Take some of the drippings from the chicken and add to the potatoes, tossing to coat. You can also just add the potatoes to the roasting pan with the chicken and skip this step. Then enjoy with your chicken.
Ah, lovely. The best things often come from something we were afraid to try.
