Aromatic roast chicken

I cannot take credit for this recipe – I found it somewhere on the internet a year or two ago and now I cannot find the original source again! If you know the source or ARE the source, let me know and I’ll link the original recipe.

A few years ago my dad and I, neither of us having prior knowledge or experience, decided to learn to roast a chicken. It has now become our tradition to roast a chicken on major holidays like Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Over the years we have tried a lot of seasonings and methods (possibly including brining, although there is debate over whether we actually did this or just talked about doing it). And, as you would expect, we have had our share of successes and less successful occasions (no complete failures, as we have always managed to eat what we made). This recipe has given us our greatest results, in my opinion, and is fairly simple for beginners.

Next time, I would use more grapeseed oil to dilute the spices as they tend to stick to the chicken and blacken a bit, although it does not taste burnt, just flavourful!

Aromatic roast chicken

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken
• 2 Tbsp grapeseed oil
• 1 Tbsp ghee, melted
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 2 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground pepper
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp fresh rosemary
• ½ tsp paprika
• 1 lemon
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary

Directions:

1. Remove organs from chicken and discard.

2. Rinse chicken and pat dry.

Chicken ready to cook

3. Mix oil, ghee, and spices and spread over the chicken, then cover and marinate in fridge overnight.

4. The next day, remove chicken from fridge and leave to come to room temperature for 45-60 minutes.

5. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

6. Pierce the lemon several times with a paring knife and stuff into chicken with 2 sprigs of rosemary.

7. Tie legs together with cooking twine.

8. Place chicken on rack in pan and cook with legs toward the back of the oven for 15 minutes.

Chicken ready to eat!

9. Turn oven down to 375 degrees F and continue to cook chicken with legs toward the back of the oven for approximately 17-20 minutes per pound or until thickest part of thigh reaches 165 degrees F. A good way to test if it is done is to grab one of the drumsticks and if it moves freely and detaches easily, your chicken is done!

10. Once chicken is cooked, turn off oven, open door, and let chicken rest for 20 minutes before carving.

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