Monday, January 21, 2013

Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner


Hello all! After a long hiatus, I'm back helping those who don't have a lot of time to cook, don't know a lot about cooking, but want to learn.

Making a roast chicken is deceptively simple. It's the ideal recipe for, say, a Sunday afternoon when you're lying on the couch watching TV, because it only takes about 10 minutes of actually doing stuff, and the rest of the time, you're letting the oven do the work. And, when it's done, you'll not only have a delicious roast chicken, but leftovers for the week.




What you'll need:

One chicken (duh). The one I have here is about 6 pounds.
Two medium-size yellow onions
Paprika
Italian seasonings
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil or butter


Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. While it's warming up, take the chicken out of its plastic (best done in your sink). Reach inside, and pull out the little packet that contains all the guts. Unless you're particularly adventurous, throw 'em out. Wash the inside and outside of the chicken in cold water, and pat the outside dry with some paper towels.


Next, place the chicken on a rack in a roasting pan so that the breast side is down. Which side is that? It's the one with the little plastic thingy that pops up when the chicken is done. If you only have a pan, then simply place some carrots or celery on the bottom, and rest the chicken on top.

Take the Italian seasonings--you can usually find it in the store advertised as such, but it's essentially dried oregano, parsley, and some other stuff--and sprinkle it on the top of the chicken.


Do the same with the paprika, salt and pepper. It should look something like this.


Finally, sprinkle a little olive oil on the top. If you don't have olive oil, then place a few pats of butter on top. Then, slide that sucker into the oven for about 1 hour and 20 minutes. If your chicken weighs less--say 5 pounds--then you only want to keep it in the over about an hour and 10 minutes.

While it's cooking, slice the onions into quarters. Then, back to the couch to watch TV. Crack open a beer. You deserve it.


An hour and 10-20 minutes later, you'll want to awake from your nap. This is probably the hardest part of the process. Using a pair of tongs, flip the chicken over.



Then, sprinkle the paprika, Italian seasonings, salt and pepper on the top. Place the onions in the bottom of the pan. Then, back into the oven for another 1 hour and 10-20 minutes. Beer time!

Before that time is up, the little plastic thingy may pop up; ignore it. You want the top of the chicken to have a nice golden brown color, like the photo at the top. When the chicken has that nice color, take it out of the oven, and fish out the onions. They'll have cooked nicely in all the tasty chicken fat, and are a real treat.


Let the chicken rest 5-10 minutes, then slice it up and enjoy! It goes real well with mashed potatoes and string beans. Depending on how many people you have over, you should have a fair amount of leftovers. I like eating the legs, wings, and thighs right away, and saving the breasts for sandwiches and such for later in the week, but do what you want. Either way, you'll have spent no more than $15 for several days worth of meals.


1 comment:

  1. Glad you're back to the blog world and this chicken looks great. I like to add a half of lemon to the cavity too.

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