Whole Roasted Chicken

This recipe is so simple my 10-year-old son can do it. People tend to be skeptical of a whole chicken, but there is something about it that will make an entire room of women fall silent. I know this because that’s exactly what happened to me in one of my cooking classes.

I love the social aspect of my classes; everyone chats, learns, and makes new friends. This one class was extra chatty (which I loved) but the moment I brought a whole raw chicken and placed it on my cutting board, the room fell silent. Most of the women had never roasted a whole chicken before, a fact which might seem very strange to my Australian friends.

You don’t need to fear the whole chicken. It’s cheaper than the other cuts and it’s the gift that keeps giving. After you roast and eat it, use the rest to make a soup, or bone broth.

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken (make it organic, I use Mary’s Chicken)

• half a lemon

• olive oil

• salt

• pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 °F.

Open the bag the chicken is in; I do this in my sink. Remove plastic wrap and the bag of giblets inside (don’t think about it, just pull it out and throw it in the trash). Rinse the chicken under cold water and pat dry with paper towels. Place the cleaned chicken in a heat proof pan, breast up. Cut the lemon into wedges and place inside of the chicken. Add about 1/4 cup olive oil to the top of your chicken and season with salt and pepper. Place in the oven for up to 1 hour.

See, that was so simple and didn't require you to buy a million extra ingredients. Once you know how to make this in an incredibly simple way, then you can add to this recipe and start to make it more complex.

Serve with a simple seasonal salad and roasted veggies or potatoes. Let me know how it goes!