Rosemary Roast Chicken

Cheap Eat Challenge: Watch or join us as our family of 6 eat on $6/day.

Also, check out March's menu and shopping list and see me get a wee bit anal.

And don't forget to check in Monday to see how we've done with this month's Cheap Eat Challenge (but don't check in at 7am or anything, because--underachiever announcement--it just won't be up by then).

I regret that I failed to get a picture of the final product. It was all golden-y chicken and vegetables, but I forgot all about taking pictures of finished chickens because things get a little chaotic around here at dinner time. Thus, this picture of a nearly raw bird with her raw veggies will just have to do.

Roasting a chicken takes time, but not effort. If you do it in a crockpot, you don't even have to worry about hanging around your house while it's cooking, though you do have to have the foresight to put the bird in 6 hours or so before dinner, and you will sacrifice a crispy skin, if you're the type who cares about such things.

P.S. I think if we ever get laying chickens, I'm going to name one Rosemary.

Rosemary Roast Chicken
Adapted from 365 Ways to Cook Chicken (which is 1 cent here on Amazon and a great book if you're a chicken lover. I've only tried a couple of these recipes that I didn't love.)
Prep: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 1 1/2 hours
Serves: 4-6 people
Cost: $8.86
(chicken: 8.00 (you can get it cheaper, but I like mine to be raised by the Amish:)), potatoes, .25, carrots, .20, apple juice: .20, butter: .06, onion: .15)

1 whole chicken (mine was just over 4 lb. I would have preferred one at 3 lb)
salt and pepper
1 tsp crushed rosemary or 4-6 sprigs of rosemary
1 Tbsp butter
2 potatoes, diced
1 onion, sliced
3 carrots, diced
1 C apple juice

Heat oven to 425. Pat chicken dry with paper towels and season all over with salt and pepper (I recommend separating the skin from the breast and patting some up in there as well, but if that's super gross to you, I won't insist). Place 1/2 tsp or 1 sprig of rosemary in the cavity. Rub butter over the skin. Place in roasting pan or Dutch oven (I used a Dutch oven.) The oven rack should be at the lower middle position.

Roast chicken for 15 minutes. In the meantime, chop and lightly salt your vegetables. Take chicken out and put potatoes, carrots, and onions around the chicken. Sprinkle remaining rosemary over chicken and vegetables (if using sprigs, strip the needles off of the main stem and use the needles). Pour apple juice over it all. Put it back in the oven. If the pot is pretty tightly packed like mine was, leave it at 425 for another 15-20 minutes. If it's a larger roasting pan with the chicken and veggies more sprawling, leave it in at 425 for only about 10 more minutes. Reduce heat (without opening oven door) to 375. Continue roasting for about an hour or until an instant read thermometer reads between 160 and 180. (You want to test the breast at the thickest point and thigh at the thickest point.)

Let rest covered for about 15 minutes. We served it with a green salad.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

The next night we had leftovers with this yummy rice from Kalyn's Kitchen.