Roasted Chicken and Veggies

It is May 1. That's right, May 1st. As in, I'm two days away from my property final and seven days away from my last final (and the trauma that is being a 1L). This also means that we will be leaving our little apartment for the summer in a few short weeks. In other words, time to clean out the fridge, freezer and cabinets.

I've had a whole chicken lurking in the freezer for a while now. Whenever I see whole roasters on sale I grab a few... Nothing is better than delish roasted chicken to ease a tired and grumpy law student. Or two in our case. Plus, the left over chicken gives me an excuse to make homemade chicken stock and a fantastic artichoke chicken salad on some fresh bread from the bakery downstairs.

There is only one down side to roasting a chicken... raw chicken. There is nothing nastier than slippery raw chicken, except maybe raw chicken juice. Blergh.

So, how do you transform this, nastiest of all nasties into pure roasted deliciousness?

Easy...

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken (1-2 lbs)

1 head of garlic, whole

1 onion, halved

1 lemon, zested and halved

kosher salt

fresh cracked black pepper

2 TBS dijon mustard

1 tsp dill

1 tsp rosemary

Assorted veggies (I used 2 yukon potatoes, 1 carrot, and 2 stalks of celery)

9-10 in. kitchen twine

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450

2. Remove giblets and any excess fat from the bird. Place this in a saucepan and set aside to make chicken stock. Rinse the chicken and pat dry with paper towels. Place the chicken breast up in a roasting pan or whatever you have handy. I use my cast iron grill pan lined with tinfoil.

3. Zest the lemon, set the zest aside. Slice the lemon in half. Juice half until you have about a Tbs of juice. Set aside. Keep both halves of the lemon!

4. Salt and pepper the inside of the bird. Place one of the lemon halves in the bottom of the body cavity. Top with one half of an onion, followed by the whole head of garlic followed by the second half of the onion and the second half of the lemon. Still with me? Here's a cheat sheet:

• 1/2 lemon
• 1/2 onion
• Whole head of garlic
• 1/2 onion
• 1/2 lemon

5. Combine the lemon juice, lemon zest, dijon mustard and dill. Mix well and rub over the breast, wings and thighs of the bird. Sprinkle the bird with salt, pepper and rosemary.

6. Using about 9-10 inches of kitchen twine, tie the bird's legs together. This keeps them from burning.

7. Place your roasting pan on a baking sheet and slide the bird into the oven. Bake at 450 for 30 minutes. Lower the temperature to 350, continue roasting for another 30 minutes.

8. Pull the bird out and surround it with veggies. Add 3/4 of a cup of water to cook the veggies and create a nice gravy. Return everything to the oven and cook for an additional 30 min.

9. Once your bird has cooked for 1 1/2 hours, check its temperature. It is cooked when it reaches 170 in the breast or 180 in the thigh. Mine took an additional 30 minutes at 350.

For the last 30 minutes, I placed the bird on a baking rack above the veggies to get it nice and crispy. You can see the rack in the second picture.

Gravy:

After removing the chicken and veggies, whisk 2 tsp corn starch or flour into the drippings in the pan. Simmer over medium heat until thickened.

Stay tuned for homemade chicken stock and chicken salad recipes!