OVEN ROASTED CHICKEN

Wowser!! Did this turn out pretty or what? This weekend was the first time I used this recipe and it really turned out great. I found this recipe where I find a lot of the recipes I use, on All Recipes.

There are a couple of reasons why I love All Recipe's website the most. The first being that the recipes are actually rated by people like me and you who have tried the recipe out. I find that really helpful in cutting down on "bad" recipes, and believe there are several of them out there. I also find it an easy site to navigate and search. One handy tool is the ingredient search. I love to search by whatever specific cut of meat I have. The other day I had chicken thighs, I searched by the words "chicken thighs" and got a whole list of recipes that call for chicken thighs. I ended up making teriyaki chicken that turned out wonderful! One last positive point for All Recipes is that you can read peoples reviews of the recipes, which usually contain handy tips on small changes they made to the recipes that made them work.

For this particular recipe I pretty much followed the recipe with a few small changes. If you would like to see the original recipe, please CLICK HERE.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 (3 pound) whole chicken, giblets removed
• salt and black pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon onion powder, or to taste
• 1/2 cup butter, divided
• 1 stalk celery, leaves removed
• 5-7 whole garlic cloves
  

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
   
2. Place chicken in a roasting pan, and season generously inside and out with salt and pepper. Sprinkle inside and out with onion powder. Place 3 tablespoons butter in the chicken cavity. Arrange dollops of the remaining butter around the chicken's exterior. Cut the celery into 3 or 4 pieces, and place in the chicken cavity. Place the whole garlic cloves in the cavity of the chicken as well.
   
3. Bake uncovered 1 hour and 15 minutes in the preheated oven, to a minimum internal temperature of 180 degrees F (82 degrees C). Remove from heat, and baste with melted butter and drippings. Cover with aluminum foil, and allow to rest about 30 minutes before serving.

My rinsed chicken, free of the giblets. Dinky always loves when I cook a chicken, cause she knows the little pan boiling on the stove of giblets will soon be cut up and added to her little dish!

The chicken fully seasoned with the salt, pepper and onion powder. I didn't measure the onion powder, I just sprinkled until the chicken looked like it had enough. Don't forget to season the inside too.

Next I added my butter, garlic and cut up celery to the inside of the bird. No special order, I just shoved them all in there! :)

Next, I used the extra butter and stuck it all over the chicken. This chicken had butter in places that even I'm a little ashamed to say, lol!

After cooking for an hour, I took it out and basted it with all the yummy juices. I then stuck it back in the oven to cook another 15 minutes. I then pulled it out and did a second basting of the bird.

You then cover with foil and wait 30 minutes before eating...........wait!! Did that really say wait 30 minutes, ohhhhh this is going to be hard. This is a good time to make any little sides though to keep your mind off tearing into the chicken. Since the oven was already warm I made a box of scalloped potatoes, which take 20 minutes to bake. Take a look at this beauty:

Can't you just taste that crispy, buttery skin and juicy chicken melting in you mouth?? Very easy prep recipe and I highly recommend this as a great way to cook a whole chicken, even for those new or inexperienced cooks in the kitchen. The chicken was super juicy and perfectly cooked. The leftovers also made excellent chicken salad sandwiches!