Garlic-Herb Roasted Chicken

Today, I'm featuring roasted chicken. My family cannot eat a whole roasted chicken in one sitting, so tomorrow I'll turn the leftover chicken into a Chicken Divan Casserole. This roast chicken gets its wonderful flavor and aroma from garlic, herbs, and lemon. Let's start with the herbs. That's parsley, rosemary, sage, and thyme. I purchased the rosemary, sage and thyme together in a little package in the produce section labelled "Poultry Bouquet". Pretty convenient.


The recipe says to mince the herbs, but since I stole my mom's food processor, I've been having so much fun with it. The ol' Sunbeam did a beautiful job of mincing those herbs for me.


I transferred my minced herbs to a bowl and added the salt and pepper. Now my rub is all ready to go on the chicken.



However, my chicken is not ready for the rub. With my hand, I loosen the skin from the chicken around the breast, leg, and thigh. Then, rub half of the minced herb mixture under the skin.



Peel twenty cloves of garlic


Place the whole cloves under the skin all over the chicken. See all of the little garlic "tumors"?



Rub the remaining herbs on the outside of the chicken



Remove the paper outer skin from a garlic bulb (do not peel or separate cloves). Cut the top off of the garlic bulb. Place the garlic bulb and fresh herb sprigs in the cavity of the chicken.


Now cut a lemon in half. Squeeze the juice from one half into the cavity and the other half over the outside of the chicken.


Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 1-1/2 to 1-3/4 hours or until chicken juices run clear and a meat thermometer reads 180° (cover loosely with foil if browning too quickly). Baste with pan drippings a couple of times.


I served mine with oven baked potato wedges. I washed and sliced 4 potatoes into wedges. Then, I placed them on a foil-lined baking sheet and drizzled then with about 2 tablespoons of butter. Next I sprinkled them with Parmesan, chopped parsley, and salt and pepper. I put them in the oven with the still-baking chicken for 30-40 minutes.


For the sake of a meal that is pleasing to the eye as well as the palate, I moved my chicken to a serving platter, arranged the potatoes around it and garnished with some parsley.


Honey glazed carrots accompanied the chicken and potatoes on the plate.



Here's the recipe from Taste of Home's Light and Tasty Magazine
Garlic-Herb Roasted Chicken
Ingredients:
1 roasting chicken (4 to 5 pounds)
2 teaspoons each minced fresh parsley, rosemary, sage and thyme
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
20 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
1 medium lemon, halved
1 large whole garlic bulb
1 fresh sprig each parsley, rosemary, sage and thyme
Directions:
With fingers, carefully loosen the skin around the chicken breast, leg and thigh. Combine minced parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme, salt and pepper; rub half under skin. Place whole garlic cloves under skin. Squeeze half of the lemon into the cavity and place the squeezed half in the cavity. Remove paper outer skin from garlic bulb (do not peel or separate cloves). Cut top off garlic bulb. Place garlic bulb and fresh herb sprigs in the cavity. Skewer chicken openings; tie drumsticks together with kitchen string. Place chicken breast side up on a rack in a roasting pan. Squeeze the remaining lemon over chicken; rub remaining herb mixture over chicken.
Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 1-1/2 to 1-3/4 hours or until chicken juices run clear and a meat thermometer reads 180° (cover loosely with foil if browning too quickly). Baste with pan drippings if desired.
Cover and let stand for 15 minutes. Remove and discard skin, garlic, lemon and herbs from cavity before carving. Yield: 8 servings.

3 ounces of skinless chicken= 163 calories, 3 g fat, 3 g carbs

*Note: I baked my chicken in a Pyrex glass baking dish. No roasting pan. No rack. My Christmas list just gets longer and longer.....

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