Putting my skills to test.
In the entirety of my cooking years, I have never made a whole chicken before this week. I think its one of those things that's scary to try but very easy to do. Last week I made chicken goat cheese quesadillas, which were great, but tasted a little off. The reason is because I used a leftover rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. If you don't cook, those chickens are great. You can turn one chicken into meals for an entire week, what could be wrong with that? When I added the spices and other ingredients for the quesadillas, the underlying "rotisserie" taste wad definitely present. It wasn't bad, but it bothered me. This time around, I put laziness aside and decided to try my hand at making my own. I think it turned out really great and the leftovers are waiting to be made into chicken enchiladas. I did a lot of research before I put together a recipe and ultimately chose to use my crock pot. The chicken was very moist but at the last minute I threw it in the oven to crisp up the skin, thus double roasted chicken.
Double Roasted Chicken
What you need:
- 4 Lb whole chicken
- 3 whole lemons, sliced
- 1 bulb of garlic, separated into cloves
- 2 teaspoons paprika
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- pinch of salt
- 4 slices of butter
In a small bowl, combine the spices. Remove any giblets from chicken, clean chicken, and then pat with paper towels. Rub spice mixture onto chicken and place in a crock pot with garlic and lemon slices throughout. Cook on low for 7-8 hours. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Transfer chicken to a roasting pan or glass dish. Place butter slices on the chicken and cook for an additional 30 minutes or until skin is browned. Let sit 15 minutes before carving.
*** If you do not have time to let chicken sit in a crock pot, bake chicken in the oven at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, after 15 minutes lower the temperature to 375 degrees and cook for an additional hour and 15 minutes***
I roasted some squash and zucchini in olive oil, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper for 30 minutes above the chicken.
Carly whipped up some shredded Brussels and bacon, yum!
To round out the meal, I also baked a few potatoes on the side of the chicken and topped them with butter and sour cream.
