Roasted Chicken
The beautiful thing about the quintessential chicken is that it tastes absolutely fabulous and produces an entire meal in a single pan. Originally served as part of: Roasted Chicken.
Ingredients
- 4 pounds chicken (Bell Evans)
- 6 cloves divided garlic
- 1 tablespoon divided olive oil
- 1/2 tablespoon plus zest from half lemon lemon juice
- salt & pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon dried rubbed sage
- 1 tablespoon parsley (chopped)
- 5 medium Red Bliss potatoes (halved)
- 2 medium carrots (cut into 2 inch lengths)
- 1 stalk celery (cut into 2 inch lengths)
- 2 small onions (peeled and quartered)
- sprinkle dried rosemary
Instructions
We start by preheating the oven to 450 degrees. Next we make the paste to put under the skin of the chicken. We mince 4 cloves of garlic and put in a small bowl. We add 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil, the lemon juice and zest, sage, parsley, and salt and pepper to taste. We mix this up with a spoon.
The rest of the garlic we chop coarsely. In our 13 x 9 inch glass baking pan, we put half a teaspoon of olive oil. We add the cut up potatoes, onions, carrots, celery, and garlic. We sprinkle this with salt and pepper and some rosemary.
We are now ready for the chicken. We cover our cutting board with wax paper. We rinse the chicken with cold water, dry with paper towels, and place on the wax paper. We want to remove the backbone and flatten the chicken. We do this by cutting along both sides of the backbone, which removes the backbone from the rest of the chicken. We save the backbone for stock along with the neck and the rinsed contents of the bag of innards (minus the liver, which we discard). After the chicken has been butterflied, we remove some of the excess fat (saving it for the stock as well).
We loosen the skin of the chicken from the breasts and thighs and put the sage mixture under the skin. We place the flattened chicken on top of the vegetables in the baking dish, skin-side up. We rub the rest of the olive oil on top of the chicken and sprinkle on some salt and pepper.
We place the chicken in the oven and cook for about 30 minutes. We baste the chicken every 10 minutes from this point on, until the chicken is browned and done. We want the leg-thigh joint to be 180 degrees. This takes us about 50 minutes in the oven.
We remove the chicken to a platter to rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, we turn the potatoes and vegetables over in the pan and return them to the oven to brown.
We serve the chicken with the potatoes and vegetables.
Ingredients
- 4 cloves garlic (minced)
- ½ tbsp olive oil
- ½ tbsp lemon juice (plus zest from ½ lemon)
- ⅛ tsp dried rubbed sage
- 1 tbsp parsley (chopped)
- salt and pepper
- ½ tsp olive oil
- 5 medium Red Bliss potatoes (halved)
- 2 small onions (quartered)
- 2 medium carrots (in 2-inch lengths)
- 1 stalk celery (in 2-inch lengths)
- 2 cloves garlic (coarsely chopped)
- dried rosemary (a sprinkle)
- 4 lb whole chicken (Bell Evans)
- ½ tbsp olive oil
Instructions
What's a kid job?
A Kid job is a step kids can help with, with a grown-up nearby, not one they do on their own. Every kid is different, so go by what your child can do rather than by age. Roughly:
- Little ones (about 2 to 4) can stir, pour in ingredients a grown-up has measured, tear lettuce, wash vegetables and sprinkle toppings.
- Older kids (about 5 to 8) can also measure and level, crack eggs, whisk, roll and cut out dough, and put things together.
- Bigger kids can read the recipe aloud, keep track of the timer, and take on more of the cooking as they're ready.
Steps with a knife, microplane, skewers, stove, oven, grill or hot oil, or with raw meat, poultry or seafood, are marked Grown-up. Kids can still watch those, from a safe distance.
Grown-up
Heat the oven to 450°F. Mix the minced garlic, oil, lemon juice and zest, sage, parsley, salt and pepper in a small bowl.
Kid job
Oil a 13-by-9-inch glass pan and add the potatoes, onions, carrots, celery and garlic. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and rosemary.
Grown-up
On a wax-paper-covered board, rinse and dry the chicken. Cut along both sides of the backbone to remove it and flatten the bird. Save the backbone, neck and giblets (not the liver) and trimmed fat for stock.
Grown-up
Loosen the skin over the breasts and thighs and spread the garlic paste underneath. Lay the chicken skin side up on the vegetables, rub with the rest of the oil, and season. Wash up.
Grown-up
Roast about 30 minutes, then baste every 10 minutes until browned and the thigh joint reads 180°F, about 50 minutes in all.
Grown-up
Rest the chicken on a platter 10 minutes. Meanwhile, turn the vegetables and return them to the oven to brown. Serve together.