About two months ago, I met a lovely woman who — on top of being an amazing wife, a wonderful mother to 4 young boys, a homeschool teacher, and an exceptional chef — also happened to raise organic chickens! She is one busy lady, so she hired me to create a little more organization in her life…and then sent me home with one of her prized birds.
I put it in the freezer because we’ve had such a hot and humid summer {and we’ve been using the grill as much as possible}. However, we had a few cooler days last week and I took the opportunity to do some baking and roast a bunch of meat!
Slow-roasting meat is one of my favorite smells…it practically screams “Fall is here”. Don’t you agree?
Many people assume that roasting meat takes too long or is too difficult for the “average” person to achieve. However, if you ask me, it’s one of the simplest ways to prepare a delicious meal…really! Just season it, stick it in the oven, and come back in an hour or so to a gourmet meal. No stirring, watching, simmering, mixing, etc. Feel free to use the roasting period to make a few side dishes, clean up the kitchen, throw a load of laundry in, or just sit and enjoy the smells!
Last week, I roasted my friend’s chicken with the same spices I use for apple pie — it was sweet and delicious! I got rave reviews from my husband and will definitely file this recipe away for later.
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken (mine was 4 pounds)
- 2 t. salt
- 1 t. white sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 t. ground allspice
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 small onion, quartered
Directions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
- In a small bowl, mix the salt, sugar, cloves, and allspice — rub mixture over chicken.
- Stuff the chicken cavity with garlic and onion.
- Place the chicken on a rack in a roasting pan.
- Roast 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce heat to 400 degrees F and continue roasting 30 minutes, to an internal temperature of 180 degrees F . Let stand 20 minutes before serving.
See…that wasn’t so bad!
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Kalyn Brooke says
Finally bought a whole chicken and am trying this tomorrow for lunch!
Janice says
This sounds wonderful and am eager to try it. It will be a change from the herbed chicken I usually make. I was wondering how much this recipe would be compromised if I didn’t add the sugar? I stay away from sugar. There are times when sweetness just adds that needed taste, but I also find that we are such a sugar saturated society that we don’t even think about it and can do without it in a recipe. I know sugar helps with the browing and maybe that’s why it’s used? Thanks for your reply.
Janice says
I was just introduced to your site and this is absolutely the best blog site I’ve ever seen!!!! There is something for everyone and it is so well organized and written. You are vey talented Andrea and you bless us with our blog-thanks.
Having that said…..I make a roasted chicken that is so easy and flavorful that I’d lke to pass it on please. The extra bonus is that while it is roasting the whole house smells of herbs! My family can hardly wait until we sit down to dinner because of the wonderful smells that fill the air.
I start out with Extra Virgin olive oil that I have combined with dried herbs (whatever you’d like, but I use garlic, parsley, sage, rosemary thyme, basil, oregno etc.) I rub that on the topside of the whole chicken. The part that makes this so wonderful is that I stuff the cavity with FRESH parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme from my herb garden. The aroma from the fresh herbs just fills the senses and we cant wait until we can taste it, as we’e been smelling it for hours. The herbs permeates the meat and adds so much flavor that you can’t believe it was so simple to make for the end result of flavor! Bon appe`tit!
Erika says
It looks like you used some herbs on the roast chicken in the picture. Rosemary maybe?
Shaina (Food for My Family) says
This look fantastic, Andrea! What time is dinner?
Andrea says
Thanks Shaina, what a compliment coming from you!
Erika says
This looks DELICIOUS! … and you make it sound so easy — easy enough for me!! It’s now on my menu for next week!! Thanks so much for sharing. I need ALL of the cooking help I can get! 🙂
Andrea says
Roasting really IS easy! I try not to do anything too difficult in the kitchen b/c I hate it when something doesn’t turn out 🙂
debi9kids says
Oh yum! That looks wonderful and the seasonings sound delicious.
I totally agree. Roasting makes meals SO much easier and it does make me think of the fall 🙂
Erin says
That looks so yummy! And yes it does scream FALL! Now when you are done you’ll need to make some soup!!