I love chicken, but even though I have cooked a turkey a few times in the past, I have never cooked a whole chicken. For some reason over break I decided that now was the time - so upon returning to LA, I went into the store and picked one up! I was pretty excited to find out that with my shopper's card whole chickens were 1/2 off, so I got a beautiful little chicken for $3 - yes, THREE DOLLARS!
I got home and looked up instructions in my Better Homes and Garden Cookbook. The instructions were pretty easy, tuck the wings under and tie up the legs, and put it into a roasting pan. Uh oh, one problem - I don't have a roasting pan. So I used a pie pan. Indeed, I did and it worked out OK, but it was a little tough near the end with all the juices.The recipe called for the chicken to be basically rubbed all over with butter, pressed garlic and a mix of spices (I used poultry seasoning, sea salt, and lemon pepper). Oh, and the cookbook suggested that if its not being stuffed, then you can put some onion and celery in the big cavity - so that is what I did. Then just stick it in the oven for about 1 1/2 hours. I also didn't have any twine to tie it up, so I used toothpicks.....
Anyway, here is how it looked before it went into the oven:
And here is how it looked after I took it out of the oven (after I drained out all the liquid to make a gravy):
And here is the delicious dinner that resulted! Roast chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, and fresh green beans!!
Now that I've made this once, I can totally see myself doing it regularly. A rotisserie chicken at the grocery store is $6 and perfectly delicious, but I think that I can make a pretty great one for $3 plus labor. Give it a try, peeps!
2 comments:
I must say, that is a pretty good looking chicken! Well done! And $3 is a steal... you can make all kinds of things with the meat!
Exactly my way of thinking. Because of my schedule mostly the extra meat was used for sandwiches in my lunch - but they were delicious sandwiches! :)
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