Until tonight, I had never cooked a whole chicken. I don't really know why, except that it always seemed easier to go with boneless skinless chicken breasts. Oh yeah, and I thought it was super gross to stick my hand up inside a cold, slimy chicken. However, after finding this super easy explanation of how to prepare, season, and roast a whole chicken, I figured it was at least worth a try.
Why can't my chicken be this beautiful??
I started by removing the "nasty bag" (known more commonly as the giblets), and rinsing the chicken in cold water. After drying it with paper towels, I rubbed butter in the cavity and on the skin and used Mrs. Dash, salt, pepper, and garlic to season the inside and outside of the chicken.
The article recommends using a v-rack like this, or a flat rack in your roasting pan to keep the chicken from getting soggy. However, since I don't have either one, I tried using the rack from our toaster oven. The rack fit perfectly in our new roasting pan (thanks Mom and Dad J!) and kept the chicken just high enough to brown perfectly all the way around.
For my four and a half pound chicken, it took about an hour and a half to roast. The first 20 minutes at 450 degrees (to get the skin nice and crispy) and the remaining 70 minutes at 375 degrees. Then I let it sit for 15 minutes to let the juices settle.
Oh. My. Gosh. This chicken was GOOD. The meat was so tender and juicy and it was totally worth sticking my hand you-know-where. There was plenty of chicken left over, so I shredded it to use for chicken tacos later this week.
sounds YUMMY!!!
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