Nearly everyone loves chicken. If you are looking for new chicken recipes to try out with your friends and family, one recipe you should try is roasted chicken scented with lemon and fresh herbs. It’s a succulent dish that is sure to wow anyone you cook for.
First, you’ll want to take a trip to the grocery store and gather the ingredients you will need for this recipe. Ingredients that you will need include salt, ungrounded cracked pepper, oil, and one three and a half to four pound whole chicken. You will also need some fresh herbs. Choose tarragon, thyme, or rosemary.
Now check to make sure one of your oven racks is slid into the highest slot that will fit the chicken. You are going to want to cook the chicken in the highest position you can in your oven. After you have done this, set the oven to pre-heat at three hundred and fifty degrees Fahrenheit.
Now, you’re going to need to remove the wishbone. Take a small and sharp carving knife. Pull the skin back where a hole is where the head once was. Stick the knife inside. Inside, scrape along the side of each breast. Now, stick your fingers into the hole and pull out the wishbone.
If there are any innards still in your chicken, remove those as well. Now slice off the tips of the wings. After you have done this, wash your chicken well.
After it has been washed, thoroughly dry your chicken off. You can do this by padding the outside and the inside of the chicken with paper towels.
Now, you will season your chicken. Take the salt and shake a very generous amount of salt into the inside of the chicken through the hole you removed the wishbone. Take the pepper grinder and also grind a very decent amount of pepper into the chicken. Add some salt and pepper to the outside of the bird as well.
To insert your tarragon, thyme, or rosemary, do so by sliding the herbs under the chicken’s skin over the breasts. Also insert some herbs under the skin on the legs and thighs as well. Stick the herbs as far back into the skin as you can without ripping it. Inserting the herbs under the skin like this will both flavor the bird and give the breast, leg, and thigh meat a nice scent. This method can also be used with butter if you wish.
Now, go retrieve your lemon. Slice it up into a number of slices and then place these slices inside the bird.
You now need to close the opening to the insides of the chicken. This can be done with kitchen string, but a simpler method may be to use tooth picks. Stab the tooth picks into the mouth of the opening so it’s closed. Secondly, take some string and tie the legs together. Don’t tie them so tight that it damages the meat.
Now retrieve the pan you will be using for roasting. Lightly oil the inside surface of the pan. After it’s oiled, place the chicken onto the pan.
Once you have done this, slide the chicken and the pan into the upper most rack in the oven that will fit the bird. Cook the bird for fifty minutes in the oven. After fifty minutes have passed, remove the pan. Flip the chicken over to the other side and then stick the pan back in the oven. Let it cook for forty five to fifty minutes this time.
After this second cooking time has passed, you can remove the chicken and the pan from the oven. You can now carve and serve you utterly delicious roast chicken to your hungry guests.
