Roasted Whole Chicken

I picked me up a couple of Hutterite chickens!  They cost a pretty penny, but I’ve come to the conclusion that I would rather have my family eat quality meat a few times a week, than unhealthy, and unethically produced commercial meats every day.  SO, a local butcher just happens to carry whole chickens supplied by a Hutterite farming community.

I must admit… I was a wee bit intimidated by the idea of a whole bird!  I’m spoiled by my mommy who always prepares our thanksgiving turkeys and I’m used to picking up a pack of boneless, skinless, chicken breasts from Costco.

Anyways, I did some googling and basically you just rub ’em and/or stuff ’em and cook ’em.  Actually pretty simple!  I used a recipe from Jamie Oliver as my guide and got to work.

This is not much of a recipe, but more so a guide on how to cook a whole chicken.

Roasted Whole Chicken

• a 3lb (or so) whole chicken
• sea salt
• black pepper
• 1 lemon
• small onion, quartered
• 4 cloves garlic, smashed
• fresh herbs, such as thyme or rosemary (optional)
  Method

1. preheat oven to 350 F
2. give a generous sprinkle of sea salt and black pepper all over the bird, rub a little inside the cavity too if you feel so inclined
3. wash the lemon well and poke it all over with a fork, shove it in the cavity
4. shove some onion chunks and garlic cloves in the cavity
5. shove a small bunch of herbs in the cavity if you are using them
6. you can also chop up some large chunks of carrot, celery and onion to lay in the bottom of the roasting pan under the bird, just drizzle with some olive oil
7. place chicken in roasting pan
8. bake uncovered in oven for approximately 1 hour 20 min
   *do yourself a favour and just get a meat thermometer! I’m underly cautious and my husband is overly cautious and having a meat thermometer has saved us SO many unnecessary squabbles about whether or not our dinner is well done enough!  let the number be your judge!*
   
   ***if you want to try to be really fancy (creepy?) you can do what I did, and using a sharp knife separate the skin from the bird a wee bit and shove some lemon slices up there.  A friend did this once and I was super impressed with the lovely embossed lemon design browned onto the top of the bird.  HOWEVER, as with flowers, odd numbers look nicer, and me being in a rush decided to just use 2 lemon slices…  well, it came out looking like a nightmare!  Two lemon eyes, a lemon shoved in the “mouth” and interestingly enough the protrusion at the back end of the bird is known as the “Pope’s Nose.”  I know that is an  offensive term, but it is right between my bird’s eyes!  It’s too creepy and entertaining not to include a picture!
   
   Also, I learned from my mommy that it’s better to cook a bird tat’s up!  I have much to learn… sigh…!  Either way, I have cooked a whole bird, by myself, and it was not difficult!  Tasted good too!  I put the bones in the slowcooker overnight and will be making some sort of chicken veggie soup in the next day or so!