Easy Roast Chicken

If you are like everyone else, you are spending this first week of the new year cleaning and organizing. This can be hard work and leave you feeling too tired to make dinner. This roast chicken recipe is even easier then ordering take out. It is also much cheaper when...

By Cyndi Coon

January 5, 2011

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If you are like everyone else, you are spending this first week of the new year cleaning and organizing. This can be hard work and leave you feeling too tired to make dinner. This roast chicken recipe is even easier then ordering take out. It is also much cheaper when you consider a roasting chicken is only around five dollars. It will also wow and impress anyone you'll be serving because it looks harder then it actually is -- points all the way around. This recipe is adapted from the Barefoot Contessa's Perfect Roast Chicken.

Learn how to make the easy roast chicken after the jump.

Ingredients

1 roasting chicken (generally 5 to 6 pound)
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 large bunch fresh sage
1 lemon, halved
1 head garlic, cut in half
1/4 stick butter, soft
1 large yellow onion, cut into wedges
Olive Oil

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees

2. Remove the chicken giblets. Rinse the chicken inside and out. Remove any excess fat, pat the outside dry

3. Lift the skin of the chicken and push half of the sage under the skin

4. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with other half of the sage, both halves of the lemon, and all the garlic

5. Rub the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper.

6. Tie the legs together with cooking twine

7. Place the onion wedges in a roasting pan and toss with olive oil. Spread the onions evenly around the bottom of the pan and place the whole, stuffed chicken on top 8. Roast the chicken for an hour and a half, or until the juices run clear. Test by cutting between a leg and thigh. Remove the chicken to a platter and cover with aluminum foil for about 20 minutes. Slice the chicken and serve it with vegetables of your choice

Note: You could also use the remaining carcass to make a pot of home made chicken soup.

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