Roasted Chicken

The whole process of roasting a whole chicken w was he then using the remains for broth is relatively easy. I’d place it at the same level of complication as decently coloring a picture in a child’s coloring book with color crayons…although I’d never let a child roast anything…of course.

So! Let’s begin. I use a roaster but if you don’t have a roaster you can modify the amount of vegetables used to fit your roaster.

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Ingredients:

– 1 whole, uncooked chicken kept in its original wrapping from the store in a working, properly set refrigerator not past its expiration date

– 1 whole onion (red or yellow) with its skins in place as it’s sold in most American grocery stores

– 5 whole potatoes (various sizes, red or yellow)

– 4 whole carrots

– 2 cups peas

– 1 tbsp. (ground) Tarragon

– 3/4 tbsp. (I prefer freshly ground) black pepper

– 3/4 tbsp. (Again, I prefer freshly ground sea salt but Himalayan salt is also nice) salt

– 1/2 tbsp. (powdered) garlic (or three cloves finely minced)

– 1 cup extra virgin olive oil

– 1 cup (clean and safe) water

Directions:

1. Turn your oven on to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Take your chicken out of it’s wrapping on a cleanable surface carefully and place it on the wire racks of a roaster or simply place it in a roaster. Throw away the wrapping, clean off your surface well and then wash your hands with soap and water.

3. Pour olive oil over chicken evenly to coat all of it.

4. Evenly sprinkle 1/4 Tbsp. garlic, and 1/2 Tbsp. salt and pepper and all of the tarragon on the chicken.

5. Place chicken without lid in oven once it is heated to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

6. Get out a cutting board and a sharp knife and potato peeler. Place them on a clean countertop.

7. Cut carrots into chunks after washing and peeling them. (I discard the ends.) Wash and peel potatoes. (Some keep skins on if they’re clean but I prefer to peel the potatoes.) Cut the potatoes into chunks. Wash peas. Peel onion (discard skins) and cut into slices or chunks (discard ends as well).

8. After a half an hour use oven mitts to remove (chicken in roaster) from oven and place on a heat safe surface.

9. Remove chicken from wire rack carefully and take wire rack out of roaster to clean, careful not to drip anything you’ll also have to clean. Then use a baster to bast the entire chicken. There are two types of basters. One is a brush that simply requires you to get enough of the drippings on your bristles or you can use a suction baster. The suction baster is used by squeezing the top and then placing the (holed) tip in the drippings and then releasing the top of the baster in your hand while holding it to suck the drippings into the tube. Then squirt the drippings by squeezing the top of the baster again. (Wash hands if you get drippings on them, although you might not get your hands dirty at all during this step.)

10. Place vegetables around the chicken (don’t splash them into the drippings, of course). Sprinkle 1/4 tbsp. salt, garlic and pepper on vegetables evenly.

11. Cook uncovered for another half an hour.

12. Remove again carefully after a half an hour (using oven mitts) and add 1 cup of water to roaster pan being careful not to pour over anything. Then take baster and bast everything.

13. Place lid on roaster. Cook at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for another hour to hour and a half depending on when the thickest part of the chicken reaches 180 degrees Fahrenheit. Use a meat thermometer to check by inserting it into the thickest part of the chicken and waiting to see what the thermometer reads as.

Once your chicken is done eat and serve. Then take the remaining carcass and drippings and separate them from the vegetables and remaining meat. Then take the bones and drippings with an added 1/2 tbsp. salt and pepper or discard the bones if you so desire. Either way bring to a boil with an added 3 cups (safe and clean) water in a lidded stock pot and then turn down to a simmer for between an hour to three hours depending on time restraints. And actually, I’ve also just added water to drippings with a pinch of salt and pepper in a hurry. But simmering for a while produces more flavor. Then let cool for 15 minutes after removing from stovetop (and turning off stovetop) and store in a heat safe container (with lid) in your refrigerator for later use.