First-Try Roast Chicken

While I was on a spur-of-the-moment shopping trip the other day, I found BOGO whole chickens and decided that I would try oven-roasting a chicken. I am pretty good at roasting a turkey, so I figured I would try a near-identical recipe and it would probably turn out...

My best turkey by far was this past Thanksgiving, when my best girlfriends and I slathered the bird with butter, and stuffed the cavity with oranges, red onion, and bay leaves. It turned out super moist and flavorful, and will be hard to beat this coming year, when I'm sure I'll want to experiment with a new recipe.

I was inspired to cook the moment I woke up this morning, and so I washed, dried, and de-gibletized my chicken, and got together all my ingredients.

I sprinkled my bird with black pepper, dried thyme, and ample amounts of salt on both sides. I added a small pad of butter into either end of the cavity, and then stuffed my garlic, lemon and orange wedges, and red onion into both ends (it turns out I could only fit about half of what I had chopped up inside, whoops). Since it was so early in the day, I set the prepped chicken on a tray and put it in my fridge until about 3pm.

Without a roasting tray, I raised my chicken by rolling three pieces of aluminum foil and sitting the bird on top.

After consulting a few different recipes online, I decided to set my oven to 375 degrees for a nice, slow roast since I wasn't going to be in a rush. I took the chicken out of the fridge and let it sit and come to room temperature while the oven was preheating, and I added white wine to the bottom of my pan. The chicken cooked for about 90 minutes, until the temperature showed 170 degrees at both the thigh and breast. (The "done" temperature recommendations seems to range between 160 and 190 degrees, so I tried to hit kinda in the middle.)

I've heard that a roast chicken can last all day out, and putting it back in the fridge would just dry it out and destroy all my hard work. I had a couple hours yet before dinner, so I made a crusty french bread loaf to accompany our meal (See my post "Finally! Perfect French Bread"). I also tossed some peeled potatoes in EVOO and Italian spices, and set them aside for roasting later.

When we were ready to eat, I placed my roasting potatoes and my chicken in the oven and cooked at 425 degrees for about 25 minutes, just to crisp up the skin of my chicken. The result? Incredibly moist, flavorful chicken that will definitely be going into our "repeat" queue.