Northfield has a farmers' market that runs summer through fall called Riverwalk Market Fair. Last summer I made a habit of going downtown on Saturdays and buying veggies for the week from local farmers. One of the booths was for Auntie Annie's Fields, who among other things, sold chickens, both whole birds and packs of different cuts.
So one sunny, Summery day I brought my Thirty One Market Thermal Tote and stocked up on poultry. Half hour later, trudging back to my car with a pastry from Martha's booth in one hand and 20+ lbs of chicken on my aching shoulder, I felt as if I'd completed a rite of passage as a true Northfielder. Not only had I had a CSA share one summer years back, I had now bought local meat.
Nevermind that I spent the Fall buying up cheap chicken at Sam's Club. I'm a bit unpredictable in that regard, balancing healthy ingredients vs. grocery budget goals. However, I'm happy to say that we're back on a whole foods kick again. I figure going organic/whole foods for half a year is better than not at all, so we'll just ride this out.
And I'm so excited, we just signed up for a CSA half-share with the farm I bought veggies from all last summer, Spring Wind Farm. On a side note, the garden planning has begun, can't wait for Spring. The fervor and motivation always hits way too early, sadly planting is months away yet!
Now with 3 whole chickens in the freezer, I realized I've never cooked a whole bird, don't really know how to. So the experimenting began. And now I present to you the final whole chicken from that purchase. I'm ashamed that it took so many months to cook the big birds, but roasting a bird seems like a big undertaking. However, this is no turkey, it's a 5lb free-range chicken that led a happy life, whom I'd like to believe was called "Colin", so it really shouldn't be that intimidating. And it's not.
As usual, I turn to the Pioneer Woman, and she has a simple and reliably tasty method for roasting Colin.
Line roasting pan, or other large pan with sides, with foil.
Zest 2 of your 3 lemons.
Be careful not to get over-zealous with your zesting. The smooth lemon flavor we're harvesting is in the outermost layer, the yellow part of the rind. So try not to zest into the white stuff, it is bitter and not as lovely lemon-y
Pause to take a whiff of your bowl.
In many recipes you can substitute dry herbs for fresh ones by just using substantially less. In this case I did not have fresh rosemary and used dried, 1 tsp.
I would not recommend this. Especially if you have a convection oven. After roasting for an hour or so, the dried herbs almost burned a little, changing the flavor. At the same time, that was on the outer skin only, so if you're not a chicken-skin eater, then no worries. But fresh rosemary goes much further in a recipe like this.
So try to come by fresh rosemary and then remove the leaves of one sprig and mince.
Mash lemon zest, rosemary, 1.5 sticks butter.
Then salt and pepper to taste, but I didn't want to taste straight-up butter.
So I salt and pepper the chicken later on.
I began with a fork, thinking it would mash well, but it was a disaster.
Wooden spoon to the rescue as usual.
Pat Colin dry. This is important for at least 2 reasons.
- We're going to be rubbing the butter all over the chicken in a minute, and it will just stick to your fingers instead of the bird if it's at all wet.
- For roasting you want to minimize any extra water/moisture, because it will create steam and compromise the roasting process.
I, uh, didn't know what to do with this, so I just tucked it under. There, that's better.
Pause to get the teething baby set up with cheerios and a toy, or whatever other areas of life may need containing before you really commit to "chicken hands".
What a smiley helper I have today!
Now things get messy.
Smear butter mixture all over chicken.
Lift up the wings and legs and get in those deep recesses and see if you can keep a straight face--impossible!
Rub butter mixtures inside the chicken as well.
Halve lemon #3 and squirt juice over outside of chicken.
Place chicken breast-side up on roasting pan.
Then stuff as many lemon halves (up to 6) in the chicken as possible.
And 3 sprigs fresh rosemary, if using fresh.
Too many lemons?
Never!
Now generously sprinkle salt and pepper on the outside.
As you can see, my chicken was still a tiny bit frozen on the inside, so my butter started to harden up and fall off in chunks. If this happens to you, keep calm and carry on--your bird may need to cook longer, but it doesn't affect the overall outcome.
Bake at 425 degrees (or 400 convection bake) for about 1:15.
I used a meat thermometer, and that was an adventure. Still working on finding a good place for the probe. I started with the thickest part of the breast, but it was close to 165 degrees within 20 min, so it must have been touching a bone. The thickest part of the thigh is another good location, and worked out in the end. But some people say dark meat should get to a higher temp, more like 180.
If your temps aren't lining up at all with the suggested cooking time, and you know your chicken is completely thawed, keep monkeying with the thermometer probe until you get a reading that could make sense.
I detest undercooked poultry, so I moved my thermometer around quite a bit, and it beeped done at about 1:10, so the times were close. And as I was carving I checked for clear juices, which there were.
And here it is. Nice crispy skin and juicy meat inside.
The dark spots on the skin are burned dried rosemary, but we're not chicken-skin eaters, so it wasn't a problem, and it didn't affect the overall dish negatively.
Now that's a lovely piece of roast chicken.
We ate it with Spinach Rice Casserole, which is a great standby side dish I keep ready to go in the freezer.
Roast Chicken
by Ree Drummond
- 1 whole Chicken, Rinsed And Patted Dry
- ¾ cups Butter, Softened
- 3 whole Lemons
- 4 sprigs Rosemary
- Salt And Pepper, to taste
Preparation Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees (convection bake. If you're using a standard oven, you can do 425.)
Zest two of the lemons. Strip the leaves off of one of the rosemary sprigs and chop it up finely.
In a bowl, combine softened butter, lemon zest, rosemary, and salt and pepper to taste.
Line a baking sheet with heavy duty aluminum foil and lay the patted-dry chicken on the foil, breast side up.
Use your fingers to smear the butter mixture all over the chicken, under the skin, and inside the cavity. Cut the lemons in half and squeeze the juice of one lemon all over the chicken. Place the six lemon halves (if they'll fit!) and the three remaining rosemary leaves into the cavity of the bird.
Place the chicken into the oven and roast it for 1 hour, 15 minutes or until done. Skin should be deep golden brown and juices should be sizzling.
*Using a probe thermometer, the thickest part of the thigh should be 180 or the thickest part of the chicken breast should be 160-165.
Carve/cut up to your heart's content and dig in!
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