A Glutton With Brains

"A gourmet is just a glutton with brains." Philip W. Haberman Jr.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Spring and Roasted Chicken


















Last week, after a serious, several day storm, we were blessed here in New York with a few nice, warm, sunny days. It started to look like Spring. Something about that warmer weather made me crave roasted chicken. So for St. Patrick's Day, I made J and I a roast chicken. I considered making something more in the holiday spirit but J said that the reason Irish people eat things like corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day is to remind them of how bad everything was, including the food, back in Ireland and how lucky they are to be living in America. So instead of trying to make something Irish, I made something spring-y. Though we didn't delight in all of the wonderful things about Irish cuisine, we enjoyed our chicken very much.

This chicken is so easy to make and wonderfully delicious. Not to mention, chicken is very budget friendly. One chicken will get you at least 2 meals. I made soup with the leftovers (next post). Many recipes will instruct you to truss the chicken, however I find that with such a small chicken, it's really unnecessary. Simply tuck the wings under the chicken. Though I'm sure you already know this, my days spent in class learning about food safety make me feel compelled to remind you to be extra careful with raw chicken. Wash your hands before touching anything else and sanitize anything that touched the raw chicken.


Roast Chicken

1 5lb whole chicken (giblets removed)

2 pads of butter

2 TBS olive oil

salt and pepper

2 sprigs of fresh rosemary

1 lemon, ends trimmed off

6 cloves garlic


1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Wash and pat dry the chicken, making sure all giblets are removed from the cavity.

3. Separate the skin from the flesh of the chicken and spread the butter on the flesh. You can simply place the butter between the skin and flesh and then move it around by pressing on the skin to spread it.

4. Rub olive oil all over the skin with your hands. Salt and pepper.

5. Place rosemary, lemon and garlic inside of the cavity.

6. Place in a roasting pan and tuck wings under the body.

7. Roast in oven for about 20 minutes. Using a spoon, gather any drippings and pour over the top of the chicken to keep the meat moist. Return to oven for an additional 20 minutes, until the chicken reaches over 165 degrees temperature on a meat thermometer. Let the chicken rest for about 15 minutes before carving.


Save the carcass for soup (recipe next post) or chicken stock.





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