My rosemary roasted chicken is as easy as it gets to prepare and it tastes good. We have two gigantic rosemary bushes out back, not far from the kitchen door. As you can see, I like to stuff the bird. The aroma is enough to bring folk to the table without delay.
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
Ingredients
- A big dead chicken (properly washed and dried:-)
- Olive oil (extra virgin olive oil is for the table and not necessary for roasting)
- A fistful of rosemary (grow your own or spend big for a supermarket package)
- Sea salt
- Coarse ground pepper
Instructions
Remove the gizzard and liver pack from the chicken cavity. Save them in a freezer bag as you might wish to fry them or make pate with them at a later date.
Wash the pretty chicken well inside and out in cold water under the tap. Pat the bird dry with paper towels. Tenderly rub the entire chicken with olive oil, Yes, I realize the chicken skin contains enough oil. You can bake a nice chicken without adding anything. It's your chicken so do with it what you please. I like rubbing the chicken with olive oil because it tastes good. The additional flavor, aroma, and beauty of the roasted bird is nice. Stuff the bird with as much rosemary as you have available. Put the chicken in a roasting pan. Salt and pepper the bird as much as you wish. I like a heavy coat of coarse black pepper. Put the bird in a hot 375 or 400 degree oven and set your timer for 1 hour (most supermarket chickens will be 3.5 to 4 pounds). This beautiful chicken from the Amish country in Pennsylvania weighed in at 5.2 pounds, so I upped the baking time to 1 hour and 20 minutes. If you want to insure the meat is done, insert your meat thermometer in the breast meat from the top of the bird down. I pulled my thermometer out when it reached 140 degrees and the digits were continuing to roll. Let the chicken rest in the pan for 10 minutes before carving it. This was a juicy and delicious chicken!
You might ask why I roast a 5+ pound chicken for 3 people? The answer to this question is the chicken provides the dinner Entree for two nights. Roast a chicken for Sunday dinner and warm the meat again for Monday's dinner. Roast chicken is also a wonderful ingredient for chicken soup and chicken salad.
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