Whole Oven-Roasted Chicken
Recipe by: Bobbi Jo Lathan
Recipe type: Entrées
Cuisine: Chicken
Serves: 4
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 2 hours
Total Time: 2 hours, 15 mins
INGREDIENTS
1 three-pound whole chicken
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons granulated garlic or garlic powder
1 stick of butter (unsalted and divided)
1 medium-sized white or yellow onion (peeled and halved)
2 carrots (peeled and cut in half)
1 stick celery (cleaned and halved)
2 strips of bacon (uncooked and preferably thick-sliced)
3-4 sprigs of fresh thyme (optional)
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Preheat your oven to 350ᵒ.
2. OK. Remove your whole chicken from the package. Be sure and remove the giblets from the chicken cavity and set them aside. (sometimes they are in a package inside the cavity, sometimes way in the back of the cavity, sometimes NOT even in a package and just sitting in the cavity, and sometimes no giblets at all...go figure.)
3. Rinse your whole chicken and pat it dry with a dishtowel or some paper towel and put aside on a plate or some dry paper towel for a minute. Now, get out a baking pan that’ll fit your whole chicken and line the baking pan with the strips of aluminum foil. You want the foil strips to be long enough to make a tent over the top and sides of the chicken once you’ve placed it in the baking pan. Be generous.
4. Place your chicken on top of the foil in your baking pan. Turn the chicken breast side down and sprinkle the bottom with your salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Then, turn the chicken breast side up and sprinkle the rest of the salt, pepper, and garlic powder on top of the chicken.
5. Put ½ stick of the butter into the cavity of the prepared chicken. Then, half of the peeled onion inside the cavity, along with a stick of celery and a stick of carrot. If you have to kind of squish it in, that’s OK. (If you like, you can add some fresh thyme sprigs, too.)
6. Now, because I am a good Southern gal and love my bacon, lay your 2 strips of bacon crisscrossed across the top of the chicken breast section. Then, pull up the left and right sides of the foil over the chicken, and then the top and bottom sides of the foil to make a tent, tightly closed at the top so it can cook in its own buttered juices.
7. Place the covered chicken in your preheated 350ᵒ oven and let it cook for an hour and 50 minutes, which will make your whole house smell delicious. After that time is up, remove the chicken from the oven, undo the foil, and roll it back (Be careful, as it’s steaming hot!) Remove the bacon strips (and eat them because they taste delicious!), baste your baked chicken in its own juices, and place it back into the oven to brown. After it’s been browning for about 5 minutes, pull it out, take a chunk of your remaining butter, fork it with a thick pat on the end, and rub it across the whole top of the chicken. Then, place your chicken back into the hot oven and let it brown for another 5 minutes or until it turns a nice golden brown.
8. Once the whole chicken is a beautiful golden brown (it should read 165ᵒ with a thermometer), remove it from the oven and let it rest for about 15-20 minutes before carving and serving.
9. Now, don’t drink that glass of Pinot Grigio just yet…we ain’t done. At some point, while the chicken is cookin’ in the oven, toss them giblets in a pot with some water, the other half of the onion, celery, and carrot, add a little salt, and boil ‘em up. Let it cook down to what we Southerners call “pot liquor,” and then discard the onion, celery, and carrot…pour the juice over your dawg’s dry food, toss in the chopped liver, heart, and gizzard……and pull the meat off the chicken neck and discard the bones. Your dawg will love you even more!
10. Now you can drink that Pinot Grigio and pat yourself on the back because you are the best and the most good-lookin’ cook in town!
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