Roast Chicken

Roast Chicken
Originally uploaded by kellik

There's something about a house filled with the smells of a roasting chicken. It's winter here in the upper Midwest and any chance to hunker in with a tasty meal is welcome.

My approach to roast chicken pays tribute to Mark Bittman and 40 clove garlic chicken.

Here's my rough recipe:

Starting with one 5.75 lb roasting chicken, I wash thoroughly, rub the skin with olive oil and then sprinkle generously with kosher salt both inside and out. I halved and peeled cloves from two heads of garlic and placed these, along with lemon quarters, into the cavity of the bird. I also placed halved garlic cloves under the skin of the chicken after first loosening the skin with a wooden spoon handle. I placed garlic and lemon quarters in the bird cavity and also stuffed the clove halves under the chicken skin. I then sprinkled the skin generously with herbes de provence and black pepper. The bird is placed on a rack in a roasting in a 450 degree oven for 30 minutes.

While the chicken cooks during this initial 30 minutes, I peeled 6 carrots, halved 12 small potatoes and 2 onions and broke 2 garlic heads down into cloves. The cloves can remain unpeeled. After 30 minutes at 450 degrees, I pulled the roasting pan from the oven and placed the vegetables and garlic around the chicken making sure nothing is crowded. I added one cup of water to the roasting pan and turned the oven down to 325 degrees. I continued to cook the bird for another hour until both bird and vegetables were cooked through continuing to add water to the roasting pan as needed to keep drippings from burning.

Remove bird and vegetables and keep warm on serving platter by tenting with aluminum foil. Pour an additional cup of water into the roasting pan and use a spatula to loosen brown bits from the bottom. Perform these tasks with roaster over stovetop so you can turn burners on low while stirring up the carmelized bits. Transfer drippings to a gravy boat to serve with vegetables and chicken during serving.

I also served warm bread along side the meal for smearing those tasty roasted garlic clove contents.