Whole Roast Chicken

This past Thanksgiving in Mario’s Kitchen was different. Sadly, our traditional Thanksgiving chef (not Mario) was feeling under the weather and was not up to the task. So, it fell to us to cook our first turkey ever. Exciting! And a little bit intimidating. While not an epic failure, that particular bird was not quite a resounding success either. But it did inspire us to pick up a couple of whole chickens to practice on.

They’re smaller than a turkey and practically a steal at about $9 for a package of two chickens at our local membership-only wholesale club (ok, it’s BJ’s). I admit I was still intimidated by a 5-pound chicken, but the process is actually very easy, and a great way to stretch your food dollars if you worry about that sort of thing.

1 whole chicken
½ cup butter, melted
1 small onion, quartered
5 or 6 cloves garlic, whole
½ lemon, quartered
1 or 2 bay leaves
1 Tbsp rosemary
1 Tbsp sage
1 Tbsp thyme
Kosher salt
Black pepper, freshly ground

Pre-heat oven to 335.

Next, we throw on our Playtex Disposables CleanCuisine Gloves - Medium:
30 Count (Mario is a freak about handling raw chicken!)

Start by removing giblet package from cavity; trim neck if needed. Rinse chicken well with cold water; Pat dry with paper towels.

Place chicken in your Pyrex Grip-Rite 3-Quart Oblong Baking Dish Clear coated with non-stick cooking spray.

Sprinkle cavity with ½ tsp salt, ½ tsp pepper, and spices (bay leaves, rosemary, sage, and thyme). Stuff cavity with onion, garlic and lemon. Fold wings back and tie legs together with kitchen twine. Brush outside of chicken with melted butter; season generously with more kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Roast at 335 for about 2 hours (for about a 5 lb. bird). After the first hour, about when the jucies start collecting on the bottom of your cooking vessel, you may baste every 10 to 15 minutes until done.

And here is the bird after just under 2 hours.

Note: Our chicken packaging says to cook it at 375 for an hour and 10 minutes, until juices run clear when pierced with a fork and a meat thermometer registers 180 degrees in the thickest part of the thigh. However, we found that with our oven at 375, it was burning the outside of the chicken, so we experimented a bit and cook ours at a slightly lower temperature for a longer amount of time. You should never cook chicken at a temperature lower than 325 degrees and a bird like this will take at least 2 hours at that temperature.

You could serve this with rice, potatoes, a nice green salad… but for us it’s just a challenge getting it onto plates and sitting down at the table with knives and forks! So you may be tempted to just eat it standing up at the counter, pulling it apart with your fingers!