Barefoot Contessa's Whole Roast Chicken - Everyday Cooking Adventures

Tonight I made my first whole roast chicken! I feel very accomplished. 🙂 I used this Barefoot Contessa recipe from a cookbook a family friend gave me years ago and insisted I had to try making the roast chicken. Well, I finally did…just many years later.

It really was easy to make except that I had no idea how you tie a chicken with that string and metal pin things. I had to look that up online because I apparently never paid close enough attention when I mom makes the turkey each Thanksgiving. I still don’t think I quite did it right but hey it worked! I had a 5.1 lb. chicken so I cooked it for about an 1 hour 10 minutes. I didn’t have fennel so I substituted roasting parsnips with the carrots and onions instead. I also rubbed the outside and inside of the chicken with dried thyme, dried tarragon, and rosemary and limited the butter on the outside to more like 1 tbsp.

The chicken came out very moist with a crispy skin (I didn’t even have to cover any parts with foil as the skin never started to get too burnt or crispy.) The veggies all came out tasty and perfectly cooked, not soggy not hard and with lots of flavor. It was a one pot meal and I have leftover chicken which I sliced and put in tupperware for open faced sandwiches with gravy tomorrow. DELICIOUS. I’ll definitely make again and play with what I use for seasoning etc. Here is my roasted chicken: @Barefoot Contessa

©EverydayCookingAdventures 2012

Perfect Roast Chicken

The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, 1999

Prep Time: 20 min

Inactive Prep Time: 20 min

Cook Time: 1 hr 30 min

Serves: 8 servings

Ingredients

1 (5 to 6 pound) roasting chicken
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 large bunch fresh thyme, plus 20 sprigs
1 lemon, halved
1 head garlic, cut in half crosswise
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, melted
1 large yellow onion, thickly sliced
4 carrots cut into 2-inch chunks
1 bulb of fennel, tops removed, and cut into wedges
Olive oil

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 425ºF. Remove the chicken giblets. Rinse the chicken inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pin feathers and pat the outside dry. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the bunch of thyme, both halves of lemon, and all the garlic. Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper.

2. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken. Place the onions, carrots, and fennel in a roasting pan. Toss with salt, pepper, 20 sprigs of thyme, and olive oil. Spread around the bottom of the roasting pan and place the chicken on top.

3. Roast the chicken for 1 1/2 hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Remove the chicken and vegetables to a platter and cover with aluminum foil for about 20 minutes. Slice the chicken onto a platter and serve it with the vegetables.