Roasted chicken for dinner is always a winner! Am I right?
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If you love rotisserie-style chicken and you’ve never roasted a whole chicken, I encourage you to give it a try. It’s super easy to do, requires very little effort, and yields a good amount of healthy meat for an excellent price. In my house I often roast chicken, usually for Sunday dinner. I then use the leftovers for casseroles, chicken salad, soups, and the bones for stock.
I love to feed my family with organic food and buying a good quality organic whole chicken is an excellent way to feed my children and save money.
Roasted chicken can be served pretty much to anyone who you invite to dinner.
It is such a neutral food that it allows you to experiment with seasonings, veggies and side dishes.
This Oven Roasted Chicken recipe makes for an easy, flavorful dinner. This chicken is tasty, juicy, and infused with the aromas and flavors of fresh herbs, onion, celery, garlic, and lemon. The skin is glazed with honey, mustard and butter and don't skip on eating it with the skin. It's delicious.
The recipe I'm sharing with you today is the very first roasted chicken recipe I have ever made since I've been married. I have tried at least one hundred times a different way to prepare a roasted chicken for dinner. But I'm always coming back to this one recipe.
WHAT DO I LIKE ABOUT THIS ROASTED CHICKEN?
Most important: it's delicious, healthy and can suit everybody.
Perfect for weeknight or weekend meals.
A one-dish meal is always great for busy moms.
Can be paired with many sides, such as salads, grains, etc.
Can be prepped ahead of time and baked when you are ready to serve it.
Leftovers can be repurposed for wonderful future meals, such as soups, chicken salad, casseroles, fajitas, frittatas, etc.
THE QUALITY OF THE CHICKEN MATTERS
Unfortunately, poultry in the US is one of the most antibiotic dosed foods. The quality depends on where and how the chicken is raised and what it is fed; this is extremely important. If you are like me and want to feed yourself and your loved ones with the best source of food, not only produce, but organic protein as well, especially poultry is a must.
Here are 2 reasons why you should spend the extra bucks on organic and free-range chicken:
A Study published in 2017 looked at the effects of feeding commercial chicken feed, conventional chicken meat or organic chicken meat to groups of female animal subjects. To evaluate the effects, researchers took measurements of the subjects’ percent growth rate and cholesterol levels as well as sex hormones in females.
A study published in the journal Poultry Science divided 600 chickens into three groups: those raised completely indoors, those given outdoor access with artificial shelters and those given outdoor conditions shaded by willow trees. Researchers found that the birds that had outdoor access and natural shelter created better-textured meat along with being juicier and tender. The researchers believe that the amount of exercise free-range chickens are able to get on a daily basis helps develop their muscles, which results in better flavor and texture.
SIMILAR RECIPES
WHAT DO I NEED TO MAKE THIS MEAL?
Chicken 4 -5 lb. - free range is ideal.
Onion - any onion will work here
Garlic - one bulb
Lemon - just one, you can use an orange as well.
Celery - a few stalks.
Potatoes - Yukon Gold is my all-time favorite.
Herbs - in the video I used fresh rosemary and thyme would be a great choice as well.
Olive oil - just a few tablespoons for the veggies is needed.
Butter - grass-fed as always.
Mustard - Dijon mustard is my first choice.
Honey -helps with color and just a touch of little sweetness helps maintain the flavor profile as well.
Salt, and freshly ground black pepper.
Soy sauce - for the final glaze, it's optional.
Let's make it...
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour and 30 minutes
Total time: 1 hour and 40 minutes
Author: Inna of innichkachef.com
Serves: 4-6 generous portions (depends on size of bird)
Ingredients for the Roasted Chicken
5-6 lb. chicken free-range
5 Yukon potatoes
3 carrots
2 onions
3 stalks of celery
1 bulb garlic
1 lemon
2 stems fresh rosemary
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons black pepper
Ingredients for the glaze
1-2 tablespoons honey
1-2 tablespoons mustard
1-2 tablespoons butter
Ingredients for the finishing glaze (optional)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon honey
Directions
Preheat the oven to 425F. Wash your veggies.
Peel the onions and cut into big chunks. Cut potatoes, carrots and celery into the same size chucks (no peeling needed). Place into a big baking dish.
Cut the garlic bulb in half and sprinkle one-half over the veggies. Set aside the other half. Add some rosemary on top of the veggies, drizzle with olive oil, and add a half-teaspoon of salt and pepper.
Wash the chicken. Check the cavity, to make sure it is empty. Use paper towels to dry the bird inside and out. Sprinkle it with salt inside and out. Place the leftover half of garlic inside along with the rosemary and half of the lemon (the other half will be used as a garnish on the serving platter).
Tie legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wings under the chicken so they don’t scorch. It's optional, but nice.
For the glaze, in a little dish add mustard, butter and honey. Place the dish into the microwave and heat up for 1 minute or so, just enough to the melt butter, and then whisk all together. Brush chicken with the glaze.
Place the bird on top of the prepped veggies in a baking dish, breast up. Place into the oven for 15 minutes.
Take the chicken out and the breast should be nice and brown. In order to protect the bird from overcooking and drying out, cover the breast with foil and return to the oven. Lower the heat into 375F. Bake for another 60-90 minutes, and the time depends on the size of your bird. Look for internal temperature 165F.
For finishing and creating an extra glossy looking chicken, make one more glaze. This step is totally optional. In the same bowl, mix honey and soy sauce and whisk together. Remove the foil and brush the breast with the soy mixture. Place in the oven for 5 minutes.
Take from the oven and let the chicken rest for at least 20-30 minutes. Move the bird onto a wooden cutting board and carve. Scoop the veggies onto the serving platter. Place the carved chicken on top of the veggies. Garnish with the rest of the fresh lemon wedges and fresh rosemary. Scoop some of the accumulated juice from the roasting pan and pour all over the platter.
Serve and enjoy!
I hope you'll make this recipe soon. If you do, please tag me #innichka_chef on Instagram, Facebook, Patreon or Pinterest.