Easy roasted chicken (cook once, eat 3 times...)

I love roasted chicken, and this is a super-easy way to do it. Cook it on a Sunday and eat quick chicken soup on Monday and enchiladas or pasta another night-recipes to come! (Eat three times from a $6 chicken or $12 if organic-still a good price with left-overs.) Of course if you have a larger family or active teenagers, you might not have many leftovers! (Consider roasting two!)

This is how my Mom always roasted chicken, and I love it. We used to stuff the chicken if it was a big one, but I skip that these days. I also use a pyrex dish, but you can use a shallow metal baking pan. Anything that will keep in the juices is fine. I no longer wash the chicken, as I learned that washing actually spreads bacteria. I try to keep one hand clean, but I usually end up washing my hands a few times during prep. It really helps if you can have a child or helper pour on the spices and oil while you turn and rub the chicken. If you don't like handling raw chicken you can use a basting brush. It tends to be cheaper than rotisserie chicken and you get to eat it when it is just out of the oven and enjoy the roasting smell!

easy roasted chicken (cook once, eat 3 times...)

Author: Katja Rowell, MD

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 90 mins

Total time: 1 hour 40 mins

Serves: 4-6

No fuss Roast chicken

Ingredients

• 1 roaster chicken,remove neck or innards from the cavity (save neck if doing soup)
• salt (2 Tablespoons or so)
• mild paprika: 1-2 tspn
• pepper to taste (about 15 turns of the pepper mill, or 1 tspn)
• Italian herbs 1-2 tspn
• Olive oil 2-3 Tablespoons

Instructions

1. (preheat oven to 400 degrees) Combine all dry ingredients in small bowl and set aside. Keep one hand clean to pour things onto the bird, the other hand to turn and rub onto the chicken. If the bowl gets contaminated with chicken, put straight into sink and wash hands.
2. Place bird with the breast up, little wings tucked under. You don't need to tie the legs, but I sometimes do. (Optional is to crush 2 cloves of garlic into the hole...)
3. Pour and rub olive oil all over bird.
4. Be sure there is oil on the bottom of the bird/pan so it doesn't stick. Pour spice mix onto oil and rub with hand all over.
5. Place in 400 degree oven with tin foil loosely covering. Turn heat down to 350 after 30 minutes and cook another hour or so (longer for bigger chicken.) Cut in near thigh to look for clear juices, or use a meat thermometer (will say what temp on it.) You may brush it with oil during cooking, but I've omitted this step and it turns out fine. When done it looks like the chicken at top of page. If you want to eat the skin and get it a little crispy, just remove the foil with about 15 minutes left. You'll need to pay a little more attention then that it doesn't burn.

3.3.3077

I overcooked it last time, so the meat was falling off the bones and it was still awesome. It is pretty fool-proof. My husband LOVES chicken and could eat the whole thing, and my daughter likes the breast meat dipped in ketchup of course! Its fun now at 3 1/2 that she is starting to notice and comment on the smells of cooking. It's so rewarding when she comes into the kitchen and says "Mommy, it smells so yummy!" (Not so fun when she says "it smells yucky"– dill for example...)

Serve with oven-potato sides, or mashed potatoes, rice, noodles, broccoli, brussels sprouts, carrots and peas, microwaved acorn squash with a little butter and brown sugar, stuffing...

Save left-over bones in a bag with drippings too (makes an awesome soup, recipe to come...)

Can shred any leftover meat and store in a zip-lock bag for enchiladas, pulled chicken sandwiches...