Simple Roasted Chicken Recipe

Once you try it once, you will be addicted to roasting your own chicken at home. Besides being a delicious and elegant dinner, there are endless uses for every piece of the leftovers, including the bones.

For example, I use chicken stock in almost every recipe I make, which is easily made from the leftover chicken carcass (I know its a gross word!). I could also kill to birds with one stone (pun intended) and have lunch and dinner for days with this recipe: the roasted chicken, chicken potato salad, chicken and dumplings, chicken noodle soup…the possibilities are endless!

Not only is this roasted chicken easy, it is also fast with perfectly crispy skin and beautifully juicy meat. The only problem with the recipe is that you may end up eating all of the chicken and not have leftovers for the other delicious dishes!

Simple Roasted Chicken Recipe

Ingredients:

• 5 lb Whole Chicken (washed)
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 Vidalia onion (quartered)
• 2 stocks of celery w/ leaves (cut into fifths)
• 2 sprigs of thyme
• 2 sprigs of flat parsley
• 2 large cloves of garlic (quartered)
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 cup stick butter (divided into tbsps)
• 12 oz beer (I use Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale)
• 1 cup water

Directions:

• Preheat your oven to 350
• Sprinkle salt & pepper over all sides and cavity of the chicken and rub in
• Place chicken in the roasting pan
• Place 3 tbsps of butter inside the chicken cavity
• Stuff the chicken with onions, celery, garlic, thyme and parsley
• Place the remainder of the butter pats on top of the chicken and next to it in the roasting pan
• Sprinkle the sugar over the chicken
• Pour 1/2 of the  beer into the pan and a little over the chicken
• Place in the oven, uncovered for .5 hour
• Baste with the drippings and cover the chicken loosly with foil.
• Bake for 30 minutes, uncover, add the other 1/2 of the beer and 1 cup of water to the pan.
• Bake uncovered for 30 more minutes
• Remove from the oven, remove and discard the veggies from the chicken’s cavity, and enjoy!
• If you are planning on making chicken stock with your chicken carcass, deglaze the bottom of the pan with 1 cup of boiling water and reserve for the stock recipe (which I will post this Friday!)