Roasted Chicken

Christmas or year-end... when you need to prepare a big family dinner in little time with hopefully simple preparation, there is nothing better than a roasted chicken. Roasted Chicken looks gorgeous on the table, smells buttery with thyme and garlic aroma, tastes even better than the smell with juicy & tender meat and crusty skin.

Any roasted vegetables cooked with the chicken will be the best side dishes for the chicken. Just make sure to blanch them in water for hardy vegetables, such as… carrots, brussels sprouts, or butternut squash. I roasted the chicken only with onion wedges… yeah… I was too lazy to blanch other vegetables for tonight’s dinner. Onion coated with some vegetable oils will caramelize easily with chicken in the hot oven.

Since, probably, you are going to prepare some other side dishes, one whole chicken (three to four pounds) can be shared by four people.


Roasted Chicken
(Yield: 4 servings / Cooking time: 1.5 hour)

Ingredients:
+ one 3-4 lbs free-range organic chicken
+ 1/2 lemon
+ 3 Tbsp room temperature unsalted butter (1 Tbsp to brown chicken / 2 Tbsp for thyme-garlic butter)
+ 3 garlic cloves (2 cloves for chicken filling / 1 clove for thyme-garlic butter)
+ several sprigs of thyme (need to reserve one or two sprigs for thyme-garlic butter)
+ salt and pepper
+ 1 onion
+ neutral oil




Procedures:
1. First, make sure the chicken is at room temperature at least for 20 minutes before cooking. Clean the chicken over cold running water and pat dry with paper towel (inside and out).


2. Remove any excess fat near cavity opening‎ --- just fat and not the skin.


3. Insert tip of knife and expose the wishbone, and pull it out to remove. By removing the wishbone, it will be much easier to carve chicken breast meat when you eat it.


4. Season inside of chicken. And, insert two garlic cloves, several sprigs of thyme (reserve one or two sprigs for later), and one half lemon into the chicken.


5. Tie the chicken with kitchen twine.


6. Season with salt and pepper outside of chicken generously, and set aside.


7. Now, make thyme-garlic butter. Take out thyme leaves from one or two sprigs of thyme and mince one clove of garlic. Mix them with soft room temperature butter.


8. Peel an onion and cut into six wedges lengthwise. Please make sure the onion layers are attached to the root end, so it can be hold in shape. Season with salt & pepper and drizzle with enough oil and let the onions coated well with oil.


9. Preheat oven to 420°F (215°C).

10. In a heavy bottom skillet (which can go directly in to the oven), add one tsp oil and one Tpsp butter.


11. When the pan is heated enough, brown the trussed chicken over medium heat. You need to brown all sides of the chicken, but especially both thighs. Because the breast meats cook earlier than thighs and legs in the oven, you need to head start cooking the thighs and legs over the pan.


12. Wipe out any excess fat from the pan with paper towel, and place the chicken, breast side up, in the center. Place onion wedges around the browned chicken and spread thyme-garlic butter on top of chicken breast.


13. Place the pan in the preheated oven (lower rack) and roast for 40-45 minutes until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thigh registers at least 155°F(68°C). 165°F (74°C) is what USDA recommends for food safety.


14. Remove the pan from the oven, and let the chicken rest about 5-10 minutes loosely covered with cooking foil. During the resting time, the residual heat will continue to cook the inside of chicken (carry-over cooking). Also, resting is very important to distribute the juice in the meat evenly, and to relax the meat muscle that tightened during the cooking process. Carve and serve with the caramelized onion wedges.


Enjoy~