my name is liz and i am a roast chickenaholic

happy halloween readers! i'm back, at least for the moment. what have i been doing, your inquiring minds ask? roasting chickens. my friends and i are currently all obsessed with roasting chickens. i have eaten a shitload of roast chicken in the past month, all delicious.

we are all fixated on ina garten's roast chicken recipes in her various cookbooks. we have experimented with ingredients, roasting times, putting bacon on top, etc. everything comes out delicious. before this month, i had never roasted a chicken in my life and now i am completely obsessed. it is so damn easy and awesome.

one of the many amazing chickens (pre-roasting) i have eaten this month, this one made by maggie and ryan

here is the template for my roast chicken, taken from here:

Lemon and Garlic Roast Chicken

Copyright, 2004, Ina Garten, All Rights Reserved
Prep Time: 20 min
Inactive Prep Time: --
Cook Time: 1 hr 35 min Level: Easy Serves: 3 to 4 servings

Ingredients

• 1 (5 to 6-pound) roasting chicken
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 large bunch fresh thyme
• 4 lemons
• 3 heads garlic, cut in 1/2 crosswise
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/2 pound sliced bacon
• 1 cup white wine
• 1/2 cup chicken stock

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Remove the chicken giblets. Rinse the chicken inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pinfeathers and pat the outside dry. Place the chicken in a large roasting pan. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the thyme, reserving enough thyme to garnish the chicken dish, 1 lemon, halved, and 2 halves of the garlic. Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken. Cut 2 of the lemons in quarters and scatter the quarters and remaining garlic around the chicken. Lay the bacon slices over the chicken to cover.

Roast the chicken for 1 hour. Remove the bacon slices from the top of the chicken and set aside. Continue roasting the chicken for an additional 1/2 hour, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Remove to a platter and cover with aluminum foil while you prepare the gravy.

Remove all but 2 tablespoons of the fat from the bottom of the pan. Add the wine and chicken stock and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat, and simmer for 5 minutes, or until reduced by half.
Slice the chicken on a platter. Garnish the chicken platter with the bacon slices, roasted garlic, reserved thyme and 1 lemon, sliced. Serve with the gravy.

maggie and ryan's chicken post-roasting

here are my tips:

• don't rinse the chicken. all that happens when you do that is that you are getting nasty ass germs and bacteria all in your sink. who cares, don't rinse.
• don't over-roast. just roast it until it is about 140 degrees internal temp. then put foil over it and let it sit for about 20 min. we live in america, you are more likely to die of salmonella from spinach than chicken.
• experiment with ingredients. i love using an herb mix of rosemary and thyme. holly made a chicken with grapefruit instead of lemons and substituted olive oil for butter. maggie and ryan stuffed one with apples and then crisscrossed bacon above and under the skin, and they injected it with squirts of ground up garlic mashed with limoncello. every chicken has been unique and delicious.
• try roasting it uncovered until the last half hour. i did this by accident once and it came out really good.
• you don't need a roasting pan and can do this in a casserole dish or whatever you want.
• put lots of vegetables under the chicken while it roasts. onions, potatoes, carrots, leeks, more garlic heads, etc.

once you get started roasting chickens i promise you will be obsessed too. the nice thing is that even if you are just making it for yourself there are so many ways to use it up afterwards. and it is way better than those damn grocery store rotisserie chickens (which i admit i buy whenever i am lazy and hungry and the smell of them overpowers me at the store... mmmm...)