Roasted Chicken

    I had a lot of fun researching this recipe. I started by watching a couple of episodes of The French Chef, because not only is Julia Child informative, she's also a hoot! Next I searched the Pinterest and I found a recipe from Ina Garten because who doesn't love the Barefoot Contessa? After poking around on the internet a little more, I was ready to tackle my challenge. Two things, you're going to want to get the raw chicken as dry as possible and you definitely want to invest in a baster if you don't have one. I really tried to use every scrap of my vegetables because I hate wasting good food.

Roasted Chicken

Ingredients:

- 1 whole 5-6 pound roasting chicken

- 3/8 cup (6 tablespoons) of butter (divided)

- 1 large bunch of fresh thyme 

- 1/2 of a large garlic bulb (5 or 6 whole cloves)

- 1 small onion

- 4 large carrots

- 1 celery stalk, leaves and all

- sea salt

- black pepper

- favorite poultry seasoning (I used GOYA)

    Start by preheating your oven to 425 degrees. Spray your cast iron skillet or roasting pan with cooking spray and set aside. Clean your chicken by removing the giblets, rinsing with water, cutting off excess skin and fat, trimming the neck, and checking for pin feathers. Make sure that the fat glands behind the tail are removed as well. Next, take paper towels and pat your chicken as dry as you can, inside and outside. Once dry, salt and pepper the inside and place it in your prepared pan. Peel your garlic cloves and place them inside of the chicken. Cut off the ends of your carrots and place them inside as well. Slice carrots into large chucks and set aside. Cut up the celery into large pieces and stuff inside, leaves and all. Cut the ends off of your onion and stuff inside, I used the skin on and all. Peel the rest of the onion and cut into large chunks and set aside. Use half of the fresh thyme to stuff and save the rest. Once stuffed, tuck the bird's wings behind where it's neck would be and tie the legs together with kitchen twine (or tin foil if you are out). Melt 3 tablespoons of butter and brush the entire chicken with it. Liberally season the entire bird with salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning. Place the carrot pieces, onion chunks, and top them with the rest of the thyme in the bottom of the roasting pan. Place the chicken in the oven and let cook for 45 minutes. Melt remaining butter and baste it onto the chicken. Flip the carrots and continue to cook for another 45 minutes, basting with pan juices every 15 minutes. Once your meat thermometer registers 165 degrees throughout your bird, remove and baste again. Cover with tinfoil and let sit for 20 minutes before carving.