Well it turns out roasting a whole chicken is easy as pie and makes like 3 meals plus 7-8 cups of chicken stock for future use! And I know you might not like handling a whole dead bird with the skin and the bones but it is not such a big deal. I even find it kind of therapeutic cleaning all the meat off the carcass.
This recipe is tangy and moist and some of the best chicken I have ever had. The roasting time is long, about 3 hours but the payoff is big. The white meat was divine! Melt in your mouth succulent. The first time I followed the recipe exactly and the second time I mixed it up using less mustard and putting some of the herbs inside the bird. I liked the less mustard version better. Also I want to play around with flipping the bird mid-roast. Maybe do breast side down for the first 2 hours and then flip to crisp the skin? And I think the method here is what yields the best results, spices and marinade could be swapped out for favorites.
I shredded the leftovers and made chicken taquitos and I used the bones to make crock pot chicken stock--both recipes coming soon. I literally felt like the ultimate resourceful woman. Maybe I could have been a pioneer...
Chicken Roasted to Perfection
recipe and pic from cristina ferrare
3 cups chicken stock, homemade preferably
6 lb whole chicken, rinsed and dried
3/4 cup dijon mustard
2 tablespoons olive oil
Juice from 1 lemon, keep rind to stuff inside
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon dry parsley
1 tablespoon dry rosemary
1 tablespoon dry thyme
Remove gizzards, heart, neck and liver from the cavity of the chicken. Rinse the chicken well inside and out and pat dry with paper towels. Place breast side up in a large roasting pan.
Make the marinade. Whist together the mustard, olive oil, lemon juice and soy sauce. Add the garlic.
Sprinkle half the herbs in the marinade and the other half on the lemon rinds, I just kind of eyeballed it. Stuff the lemon in the cavity of the chicken.
Preheat the oven to 350*. Wrap the tips of the drumsticks and wings in foil to protect them from burning. Pour the marinade over the chicken. Cover with a lid or use heavy duty foil. Make sure the foil does not touch the bird or the skin will come off when you remove the foil.
Roast for 90 minutes with foil on. Remove foil and continue to roast for 30 minutes.
Add 2 cups chicken stock and using a wooden spoon, scrape up any bits from the bottom of the pan. Baste the chicken well. Continue roasting, uncovered for another 60 minutes, basting every 15 minutes. Add chicken stock if needed to keep bottom of the pan from burning.
Remove the chicken from the oven and place bird on carving board to rest. Cover with foil. Rest 10 minutes.
Add 1/2 cup chicken stock to the pan juices and stir to release any crusty bits from pan. Pour through a strainer into a pot. Discard contents in the strainer. Skim any oil from top of juices.
Carve the chicken and serve with pan juices.
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