Savory Roast Chicken
My kids love chicken, especially roast chicken. This a simple and yet easy recipe. We used a large roasting chicken which weighed about 8 pounds which will give you a nice meal with leftovers for sandwiches or salads. Also, it can be a great alternative for a small Thanksgiving- a huge feast for two. To make it extra special, we stuffed the bird with a savory sausage and Lizabetti's bread crumb stuffing. It was absolutely delicious. All you need to complete the meal is a vegetable and a side of rice or potatoes.
Ingredients:
- 1 roasting chicken, about 8-10 lbs.
- 2 tbsp of sweet paprika
- 2 tbsp of garlic powder
- 2 tbsp of onion powder
- 1 tbsp of salt
- 1 tbsp of dried, minced oregano
- 2 tbsp of minced fresh garlic
- 2 tbsp of olive oil
- 2 tbsp of unsalted butter
- Lizabetti's sausage stuffing
- 1 portabello mushroom, sliced
- 1 medium onion, sliced
Directions:
- Trim the chicken, if necessary. I like to trim some of the fat around the neck and cavity opening. I also give the bird a rinse and pat it dry.
- Gently, pry the skin on the breast loose. You don't have to loosen the whole thing, just enough to get some of the seasoning mix between the meat and skin.
- Mix all the dry ingredients together. I like to use a whisk.
- Sprinkle the mix all over the chicken. Make sure you coat the inside cavity of the bird.
- Coat the area between the breast and skin with the dry mix.
- Coat the inside cavity as well as the section between the skin and the breast meat with the fresh minced garlic.
- Drizzle the olive oil over the chicken which will help the seasoning to adhere to the chicken.
- Cover the chicken with plastic or foil and let it marinade overnight or for a few hours in the refrigerator. Make sure take the chicken out about an hour before you are going to start roasting it. Its best if the chicken is not ice cold.
- Preheat the oven to 400 F.
- Soak about 2 feet of cooking twine in warm water.
- Place the sliced portabello and onion on the roasting rack and set the bird on top of the mixture.
- Stuff the bird with the stuffing. I find that you need to really stuff the cavity tightly. It might look small, but you will be surprised as to how much stuffing you can get into the chicken. Just keep pressing and adding the stuffing, until the entire cavity is tightly stuffed. I know that there are many camps on whether to cook the stuffing in the bird or not. For this recipe, I like the stuffing cooked in the chicken.
- In order to keep the stuffing in the bird, I use a big sewing needle and the twine to "sew" the cavity shut. You may not be able to get the opening completely closed, but just having a bit of twine across the opening will help to keep the stuffing from completely falling out. Wrap some of the twine around the drumsticks and trim the twine.
- Take the 2 tbsp of butter and slather them between the breast meat and the skin.
- Roast the bird at 400 F for about 30 minutes. Then turn the temperature down to 375 F and continue to roast for another 2.5 to 3 hours.
- Let the bird rest for about 15 minutes and then its ready to be carved.
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