A Simple and Delicious Roasted Chicken Recipe
Who doesn't love a good roast chicken? I know it’s tempting to just buy rotisserie chicken from the grocery or from a Lechon “Manokan” on the side of the road (those options are both always SO good!), but it’s always great to have some roast chicken cooking skills up your sleeve. I’ve scoured and researched the internet on some recipes and ideas and while I didn’t follow any particular one to the letter – I did pick up some really helpful tips. I incorporated these tips into the recipe which I found really made the chicken not only flavorful and tasty, but also moist and tender and absolutely delicious! Read on for these snippets of tips and through to the end for the full recipe.
The ingredients are some of my favorites like herbs with butter and lemon and garlic. Now who doesn’t love that combination?
Tip : I’ve read on several sites that you should always season your chicken ahead. Even if you have not put the marinade or rub yet. It helps with making sure the chicken will be flavorful. It’s recommended you salt it a few hours before. As for myself, I’ve just put salt all over the chicken and let it rest while I gathered the rest of my ingredients and prepared for the next step.
Next up I mixed up all of the following and formed it into kind of a rub for the entire chicken.
Rub all this all over the chicken – make sure you put under the skin so it will be extra flavorful!
I then stuffed the three small garlic heads (if you can’t find native garlic then just put the normal one), and the rest of the lemons inside the cavity of the bird. You can find some kitchen twine and tie the chicken’s legs together so you can keep all these in place and lock the flavor in. (I didn’t do this though even if I should have!)
Preheat your oven for 15 minutes.
Tip : Place the chicken bottom side up and cook for 15 minutes. After, flip it and cook it the rest of the time, with the top side facing up (this mean’s the breast side). To be honest I am not sure what the theory behind this is – but I find that the chicken gets cooked really evenly and the skin on top of the breast part gets just a little bit crisped up and the rest of the chicken is cooked perfectly. Moist and juicy and not dry at all.
After it’s done cooking (after another 1 hour and 10 minutes more), take the chicken out of the oven and let it rest. Pour the drippings all over the chicken or if you want, make some gravy out of it. Serve it with some cooked vegies!
What do you guys think? Hope you were able to take home some useful tips and ideas on making this chicken. It’s such a perfect dish to serve when you have guests over or for a special dinner night at home. Easy to make even if it comes out looking like you spent so much time and effort on it!
Full Recipe
Roasted Chicken
1 Whole Chicken
3 whole garlic heads (small native garlic)
2 cloves of garlic
2 lemons
2 Tbsps. Olive Oil
1 Tbsp. Thyme
1 Tbsp. Rosemary
3 Tbsps. Butter
Salt&Pepper
--> Put salt all over the chicken. Set aside.
--> Mix together in a small bowl the components of the rub : Chopped up garlic (2 cloves), juice of ½ lemon, salt&pepper, butter, olive oil and herbs.
--> Rub the mixture all over the chicken. Make sure you get it in all parts and crevices and also under the skin.
--> reheat your oven at 220degrees for 15 minutes.
--> Put chicken in baking pan with the bottom side facing up. Cook it for 15 minutes
--> After 15 minutes, flip the chicken and make sure the top side (this means the breast side) is facing up. Cook it in this side the rest of the time till the end. For about 1 hour and 10 more minutes. (If you’re using a really big chicken you might want to adjust the time and cook it longer.)
--> Once the chicken is done (meat is all white and juices run clear), take it out of the oven and let rest before you start cutting it up.
--> Serve it with some cooked vegetables and enjoy!
