Whole Roasted Chicken

The Whole Roasted Chicken is one of the easiest preparations that can be made at home. Yet it never fails to make an elegant presentation at your dinner table. You don't have to slog in the kitchen at all to prepare this. Yet you get to enjoy a delicious royal chicken meal.

This whole roasted chicken recipe requires very little preparation. The oven does all the work for you. The roasting keeps the meat very juicy while crisping up the skin. I've roasted the chicken in the convection oven using a baking dish. You could also roast it using a rotisserie. I will share the recipe of Rotisserie Chicken seperately. You can roast potatoes, carrots, squash, rutabaga, turnips etc along with the chicken and have a side dish with no extra effort. What a perfect meal - Roasted chicken with roasted vegetables??  Its a must try recipe.

Ingredients

For the chicken

Whole Chicken - 1

Garlic - 3 cloves (minced)

Rosemary(dried) - 1 tbsp

Unsalted butter(softened) - 3 tbsp

Crushed black pepper - 1 tsp

Salt - to taste

Pepper - to taste

Lemon - 1

For the potatoes

Potatoes - 4 large (or use about 15 baby potatoes)

Rosemary (dried) - 2 tsp (or use 1 tbsp of fresh rosemary)

Garlic - 1 bulb

Salt - 1/2 tsp

Pepper - 1/4 tsp

Olive Oil - 2 tbsp

Method

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Wash the potatoes and dry it completely using a clean kitchen towel. If you are using large potatoes, cut it into big chunks. If using baby potatoes, you can leave them whole.

Take the potatoes in a large bowl. Mix the olive oil, salt, pepper and rosemary with it.

Cut the garlic bulb in half or leave it whole. Add it along with the above mixture.

Take a large roasting dish and drizzle some olive oil. Add the potatoes and spread it at the bottom of the pan.

Clean the chicken and dry it completely.

Juice the lemon and rub it all around the chicken. Leave the lemon rind along with the potatoes in the baking dish. 

Mix the butter, garlic, rosemary, salt, crushed pepper powder and the leftover lemon juice in a bowl.

Spread some of this butter mixture under the skin of the chicken. Spread the remaining butter all over the chicken.

Place the chicken carefully on the bed of potatoes.

uck the legs and wings of the chicken under the body to prevent it from getting burnt.

Bake for about 1.5 hours. Check the internal temperature. If it has reached 170 degree F, remove it from the oven. If not keep it for another 10 minutes and check. If you do not have a kitchen thermometer, cut with a knife into the chicken. If the juices coming out of the chicken are clear and  colourless, then the chicken is cooked. Do not overcook, else the chicken will become dry.

Let the chicken rest for about 10 minutes before you dig in.