Sunday Roasted Chicken

I love roasting a whole chicken on Sundays. Not only is it delicious and affordable, but it also means I'll have delicious leftover chicken to use in another meal later in the week. That's a win-win!

I've experimented with a lot of different roasted chicken recipes but I've recently settled on one that is my go-to. It's easy, I almost always have all the ingredients on hand, and it tastes AMAZING!

I've made this a couple of times recently and every time I forgot to take a photo of the finished roasted chicken because I was so anxious to eat it. This time it happened again and I realized I was just going to have to deal with a photo of the chicken already cut up. At least you can tell how delicious it is by how much we wanted to eat it RIGHT AWAY. :)

Crispy Roasted Chicken

source: me

1 whole chicken (mine was 6 lbs)

1 lemon, cut into quarters

1 onion, cut into quarters

salt & pepper

2 Tbsp softened butter or margarine

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp Herbes de Provence (or 1 Tbsp rosemary & 1 Tbsp thyme would work just fine too)

1 tsp garlic salt

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Remove the innards from the cavity of the chicken (I always make Alex do this part) and rinse the inside and out of chicken. Pat dry with paper towels and place on a roasting rack or on top of a bed of vegetables (I use onions & potatoes when I do it this way).

Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper on both sides. Place the quartered lemon and onion into the cavity of the chicken.

Mix together the butter, oil, herbs & garlic salt until well combined. Using your hands, spread the mixture on the chicken. Also spread some of the mixture underneath the skin around the breast area. Make sure the whole chicken is covered in the butter mixture.

Place the chicken in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 375 degrees and continue cooking for about another 1.5 hours, or until the area under the wing registers at 180 degrees.

Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes before carving.

**Note: If you put vegetables under your chicken, like I did in the picture, be sure that they are not cut too small. I cut mine too small this time and they were pretty much burnt to a crispity crisp by the time the chicken was done.

**Note #2: If you do NOT put vegetables under the chicken you will end up with awesome fat drippings under the chicken at the end of cooking, which you could then use to make gravy...(whisk in a little flour and chicken stock and heat until thickened). Sometimes we do this but lately we are trying to save the calories...and really the chicken is so moist and juicy that it doesn't even need gravy!

**Note #3: After we both get one dinner out of the chicken, we usually still have 2-3 cups of leftover chicken for another meal. Try using the chicken in a soup...it's soo good!

**Note #4: You can experiment with the spices in the butter/oil rub (as I often do)...Lemon Pepper also makes a great addition.

Maybe someday I'll actually remember to take a picture BEFORE we dig in to the chicken.