bought a whole chicken. how to cook it?

[readytobedone]

whole organic chickens were on sale at my local grocery store. i've never cooked with one before

what about roasting it in the oven, or if it will fit (it's pretty small), in my convection toaster oven?

i plan to cook it for dinner tomorrow. any recipes or ideas are welcome!

[Elecampane]

It depends on how you want to eat it. If I just want the meat to use in other dishes, like enchiladas or something, I cook whole chickens in the crock pot. The meat comes out unbelievably moist and delicious. If, however, I want to eat it as "roast chicken" with that delicious crispy skin, I roast it in the oven. I find that the meat is less tender that way (but maybe it's just my oven), but it's still pretty good. And of course any leftovers can be used in other dishes, too.

Whatever you do, save the carcass for stock!

[readytobedone]

Originally Posted by Elecampane

It depends on how you want to eat it. If I just want the meat to use in other dishes, like enchiladas or something, I cook whole chickens in the crock pot. The meat comes out unbelievably moist and delicious. If, however, I want to eat it as "roast chicken" with that delicious crispy skin, I roast it in the oven. I find that the meat is less tender that way (but maybe it's just my oven), but it's still pretty good. And of course any leftovers can be used in other dishes, too.

Whatever you do, save the carcass for stock!

i want it to be "roast chicken" and figure i can use leftovers for sandwiches...or maybe a soup. i will be posting later about stock!

thank you! :

[MeepyCat]

Roast chicken is dead easy. Turn the oven to 350, remove bag of giblets, rub chicken with salt, slice a lemon in half and stuff in the cavity, put the whole thing in a pyrex brownie pan, and check on it every half an hour. It's done when the juices run clear.

This sounds like a small chicken, so maybe check every 15 minutes after the first 30.

If you want to get fancy, slide some herbs under the breast skin.

My fave roast chicken recipe at the moment is here: http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/12/zu...n-bread-salad/

It's a tad more elaborate than what I've described, but comes out fantastic.

[zinemama]

How to Roast a Chicken

Make a mixture of chopped herbs, 2 cloves chopped garlic salt, pepper and about 2 Tbs olive oil. I like parsely, basil, rosemary - but whatever you like.

Place the chicken in a roasting pan. Rub it with the herb/oil mixture.

Put half a lemon inside the chicken. (Not chopped up).

Preheat the oven to 400.

Roast the chicken for 10 minutes at 400 then reduce the heat to 375 and cook till done.

Roast your chicken for 20 minutes per pound.

I have never cooked a chicken in a toaster oven, but I would say no on that. It will splatter grease all over and then your toast will taste chickeny. Use the regular oven.

[jocelyndale]

Brine it, rinse it, massage it with some butter or oil under the skin, I think. Stuff it with an onion and a lemon, scatter some fresh herbs over it. And then call my DH and ask how he actually cooks his.

Don't forget to take the giblet packet out!

Seriously, call my DH. He's the roaster in the family.

[vermontmomma]

Originally Posted by zinemama

How to Roast a Chicken

Make a mixture of chopped herbs, 2 cloves chopped garlic salt, pepper and about 2 Tbs olive oil. I like parsely, basil, rosemary - but whatever you like.

Place the chicken in a roasting pan. Rub it with the herb/oil mixture.

Put half a lemon inside the chicken. (Not chopped up).

Preheat the oven to 400.

Roast the chicken for 10 minutes at 400 then reduce the heat to 375 and cook till done.

Roast your chicken for 20 minutes per pound.

I have never cooked a chicken in a toaster oven, but I would say no on that. It will splatter grease all over and then your toast will taste chickeny. Use the regular oven.

this is how we do ours too, very good! you can also quarter the chicken for use in several meals. cut off drumsticks with thighs and wings with breasts or just breasts and wings seperately (save in a bag n the freezer until you have enough for a hot wings night)

[Magelet]

For roast chicken, I make sure there is no giblet package, rinse it, pat it dry, butter it (or maybe olive oil might work well too) either over or under the skin, squeeze half an orange over it, squeeze a bit of the other half into the chicken, and stuff the partially squeezed orange into the cavity. Roast at 400 til its done, which is probably 30 min to an hour depending on size. I like to put a few sliced onions that are coated with olive oil in the bottom of the pan about 1/3 of the way through. they add great flavor to the drippings. you can add over veggies to the bottom of the chicken pan to roast and they will taste great, soaking up chicken flavor, but you will get less drippings so I like to do most of my veggies in a seperate pan.

[ursusarctos]

Basically people have covered how to roast a chicken already, but I just wanted to add that you don't need the lemon unless you want it to be a little lemon flavored. My personal variation on the chicken-seasoning theme is to rub the inside and outside with a good amount of butter, salt and pepper and then to roast in the oven at about 350ish until 1) the juices run clear when you poke it and 2) the leg seems almost ready to just come off when you pull on it a bit.
After you take the chicken out of the oven, you should also prop it on a plate breast-down and let it sit covered for 10 or 15 minutes in order to let the juices "reabsorb" into the chicken so it's moister. At least that's what all the youtube videos told me and what I have done with good results
You can also chop veggies like potatoes, carrots, brussels sprouts, onions etc. into largeish chunks and scatter them over the bottom of your roasting pan, drizzle with olive oil, then put the chicken on top of them and roast them altogether. That way the veggies create air circulation space under the chicken and also get seasoned in the delicious chicken drippings.

[kjbrown92]

I just rub with olive oil. Sprinkle with sea salt, pepper, and a little oregano. YUM-O. And savor the skin - it's the best part. And yes, keep the carcass for yummy 24-hour bone broth.

[mamadelbosque]

As others have said you can roast it... or you can cut it up and bread it & bake it, or make it into pretty much anything. I often have DH cut them up and make them into chicken parmesan, or what I call baked redhot chicken (think chicken wings, but with all the different parts of chicken, quite tasty, really!!) or even general tsos & then a stir fry another day.

[readytobedone]

my roast chicken turned out GREAT!

thanks for all the advice. i ended up rubbing it in ghee, parsley, thyme, salt, pepper, crushed garlic--

i put a half lemon inside.

then i put parsnips, carrots, and onions all around. YUMMY!

we have some meat leftover for sandwiches--not much, DH almost ate the whole chicken himself, practically :

[ashleyhaugh]

i like doing mine with rice... rinse it, put salt, pepper, poultry seasoning (or whatever herbs you like) and butter all over it. quarter an onion and stuff it, along with a few cloves of garlic, in the cavity. cook it in the oven in a 9x13 pan covered in foil til its mostly done. take the chicken out, and put it on a plate, and pour the juices into a measuring cup. add enough liquid to the drippings to make however much rice you want. pur some dry rice on the bottom of the pan, put the chicken back in, then pour more rice around it, and then pour the liquid over the rice. put the foil back on, and cook it until the rice is done, usually another 1/2 hour or so. uncover it towards the end, or just use the broiler, to make the skin crispy.

the rice needs salt when you eat it, but my mom never added it while cooking, so i dont either. you can add it in if you know how much you like