by Lorrie Esposito of WitsEndDesign

Ummm…..nothing smells as good as a chicken roasting in the oven. I’m not sure why, but for years I was intimidated by the whole chicken roasting process. Maybe I thought it was too much trouble, maybe recipes I followed in the past yielded less than delicious results. Now, I roast a chicken at least twice a month and have perfected the technique to my own liking. Not only is roasting a whole chicken economical, I learned just recently it is usually fresher and handled less, unlike cut, packaged chicken. Box stores usually sell double packs for around .99 cents a pound. Our local grocery stores often have them on sale for .89 and sometimes, even better, at .79 cents a pound. I find that an average size 5-6 pound chicken feeds four adults with plenty of leftovers for making a casserole, salad, etc. Another reason I love chicken is it is so versatile. You can vary the flavor in so many different ways. My three favorite seasoning blends are Mexican, Traditional and Lemon Pepper. If you plan on using the leftovers for tacos or burritos use seasonings such as cumin, chili powder, and garlic powder in addition to salt and pepper. Sometimes I roast just a chicken and other times I add root vegetables to create a whole meal, which is a great timesaver. Tweak and experiment to your own taste and have fun!

Traditional Roast Chicken with Vegetables

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Total cooking time is 1 ½ hours regardless of chicken size

Ingredients:
1 roasting chicken
Olive oil
Dry packaged onion soup mix (I make my own but you can use Lipton or store brand)
Salt, pepper, poultry seasoning and crushed rosemary
Root veggies such as potatoes, celery, carrots, onion (in the summer when the garden is overflowing I like using zucchini and summer squash)

Method:
Cut up veggies into chunks along with ½ of the onion. Place in a 13 X 9 roasting pan. Drizzle olive oil over veggies and stir to coat. Add ½ a packet of soup mix or more to taste and stir again. In lieu of soup mix you can also just add salt, pepper and crushed rosemary. Make an oval well in the pan where you will be placing the chicken. (If you want to make gravy you can add some broth to the pan at this point.)
Remove giblets and neck bone if included, from chicken cavity and rinse thoroughly. Place chicken on paper towels and pat dry. Place chicken in pan and sprinkle salt, pepper and crushed rosemary inside of cavity. Rub olive oil over entire outside of chicken. Season the breast side first with aforementioned seasonings. Turn chicken over and season underside of chicken. VERY IMPORTANT-Leave chicken breast side down. Place half of the onion in the cavity. Set timer and roast for 45 min. When timer goes off, flip the chicken to breast side up. This is done by using a utensil poked into both ends of chicken. Do not pierce the meat as you will lose all of the juices that make a nice, moist chicken. At this point you can also stir the veggies. Set timer for an additional 45 minutes. If the chicken begins to brown too much in the last 15-20 min. tent with foil. When chicken is done, press foil around chicken and let it rest 15-20 min. before carving.

Here are some wonderful chicken themed items from our CAST team.

by Lorrie Esposito of WitsEndDesign

www.etsy.com/listing/64772336/country-chicken-quilted-hotpad-10-12-in

www.etsy.com/listing/86820651/zipper-purse-country-chickens-hand

www.etsy.com/listing/86820651/zipper-purse-country-chickens-hand

www.etsy.com/listing/84456370/nesting-chicken-gift-tags