For Thanksgiving this year, I made my first roast chicken ever. I was a bit apprehensive, since I've never done it before and cooking a whole bird seemed like a daunting task. But everyone always says how easy it is and how good it is, so I thought, why not give it a try. I used the Pioneer Woman (of course) roast chicken recipe as a base and changed a few things using what i had available to me.
Instead of rosemary in the butter, I used thyme and added some chopped garlic. My veggie box that week came with a bundle of poultry seasoning (rosemary, thyme, sage), which I stuck into the cavity (up the butt - hehe) of the chicken along with the lemon.
Overall, I thought the chicken came out very well, super moist and juicy. The lemon and herb flavors came through nicely.
Lessons learned:
- Leave the butter out longer to allow it to soften (soft butter really helps)
- Pat the chicken dry and pat it dry again. Butter sticks better to super dry chicken
- Turn the broiler on for a few minutes at the end to crisp up the skin more
A few pictures of the process, nothing amazing:
naked chicken
ready for the oven
all done!
