Gooooood Morning!

I have to say that I’ve been so excited to get back into a routine and now that I’m finally getting there, all I miss is sleeping in! I just have to make up for it with weekend napping.

Anyhooo. Last night I ran to the grocery store after work and decided to roast a whole chicken. I got this recipe from a good friend of mine. I cooked her dinner one night and we got to talking and trading recipes. This one has withstood the test of an amateur cook (me!).

The organic chicken I bought was $12 for 3 lb at our local Kroger’s (it’s like Stop and Shop or Vons). It’s rather expensive but so worth it for the lack of toxins, mistreatment, and better taste! And roasting a whole chicken is really cost-effective. The 3lb I bought will last us at least three days with chicken for one meal a day.

NOTE: the recipe seems long but it’s SO easy and has very basic, very flexible ingredients.

Ingredients for the chicken:

one whole, organic chicken (if frozen, let thaw for 24 hours)

few sprigs of rosemary, chopped into 2 inch pieces

half a lemon

1 tbsp sea salt and 1 tsp ground pepper

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 garlic bulb

Additional, optional ingredients:

sweet potatoes

normal potatoes

butternut squash

broccoli

onion

bell pepper

Prep the Chicken:

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Remove the innards if they came with the chicken (this is the grossest part). Place chicken on a baking pan. Cut 4 or 5 tears in chicken skin and stuff some chopped rosemary and a garlic clove in each one. In a small glass mix sea salt and pepper, olive oil, juice from lemon (save the skin), and rest of the garlic. Use your hands to rub the scrub mixture into the chicken. Flip it over to get the underside as well. Stuff the bum of the chicken with the used lemon skins and more rosemary.

Add the fun stuff: 

I also bought a butternut squash and some potatoes and had some leftover onions in the fridge. I’d never cooked with squash so I was kind of nervous but I just went for it. Cut your add ons into bite sized pieces and scatter them around the edges of the chicken. No need to season, everything you just put on the chicken will make it SO delicious.

^ The chicken and add ons before roasting. Don’t put it on wax paper, it ended up sticking.

To Roast:

Scroll down to find “Roasting Temperatures and Times”: http://www.helpwithcooking.com/cooking-poultry/roast-chicken.html < I definitely keep the temp at 450° for the first 10 minutes then lower it for the rest of the cooking time. You can pretty much leave it alone after that.

I regret to inform you that I was so excited about the chicken that I didn’t take a picture before carving it. But here it is all plated with cabbage salad (not so yummy)! Mike and I both agreed that it was delicious. And the squash turned out better than I could have imagined.

^Bon a petit! *from now on pictures will be taken on a real camera instead of my iPhone. no more blurriness.