- Hey, I'm John Kanell and today on Preppy Kitchen,
we're making a perfectly delicious roasted chicken
so let's get started.
First off, preheat your oven to 450 fahrenheit.
Grab a big roasting dish
and we're gonna prep our chicken.
You should have a three to four pound roasting chicken
and it shouldn't be ice cold.
If it is, it's gonna really have a difficult time
baking properly, so just let it warm up a bit
and also drain any juices that are left inside.
You want to pat your chicken dry with paper towels.
It shouldn't be wet because we're gonna be covering this
in delicious things, including butter
and I need that to stick.
This chicken's had its giblets removed.
I actually saved the livers because roasted chicken liver
is one of my secret favorite things
that you know about now.
Roasted chicken is delicious and I love the crispy,
like, nicely seasoned skin.
But you want the meat to be flavorful too.
You can't just put flavors on the outside of your chicken,
you have to put it under the skin as well.
So, with your clean hands,
you're going to carefully separate
the skin from the meat.
You wanna lift the skin away from the meat
without tearing the skin.
It's great to keep it intact
'cause it's going to keep all those flavors in there.
So many delicious things will be placed inside of here.
If you tear your skin, that's okay, it happens,
don't worry about it, it'll still be delicious.
Just a little tear, ah.
You also wanna lift the skin away from the thighs as well
because it's going to be flavored all over.
We're gonna set our chicken aside,
wash your hands very well and onto the next step.
(classical orchestral music) (faucet water running)
- [Narrator] Running water is an important element
since it acts to flush farm material off the hand.
- In a smallish bowl, I'm combining about two tablespoons
of unsalted butter with one tablespoon of olive oil.
Gonna melt this in the microwave over 50% power.
And while it melts, I'm heading out to the garden
to grab some fresh herbs and a few onions.
We planted a lot of things in the garden this year,
among them onions.
I'm using some fresh onions.
Fresh tarragon is amazing, so is rosemary.
You could use any of your favorite herbs in this chicken.
For this recipe, you want at least one medium onion,
but I love onions with roasted chicken
so I'm gonna add one medium and two small.
Just giving this a nice slice,
it's about half an inch thick.
They'll roast up and they won't dissolve away
but they will cook through it
and caramelize in all those amazing rendered juices.
You know the best part about onions fresh from your garden?
No tears.
Oh my gosh, look.
It's like nothing, there are no tears at all.
It's only the onions that have been in cold storage forever.
They're really aged and they're just so potent.
This? Look, nothing.
Nothing. It's amazing.
Sorry.
Grab a head of garlic.
We're gonna cut it in half cross ways.
Whoa, careful, careful.
This isn't garden fresh so it has all the papery skin.
Perfect.
Slice a lemon in half.
If you're adding any herbs to your butter like I am,
make sure you separate the stems from the leaves.
This will go under the skin too
and no one wants to chomp into like a woody stem.
So all the soft parts, please.
Oh my gosh.
This tarragon smells so good.
Highly recommend with chicken.
I'm gonna give this a nice fine shop.
Every Sunday my family gathered
for a big dinner with our grandparents and
we would have all sorts of dishes.
We'd often have this dish and making it
just reminds me of my family.
It's like a warm memory to go with a warm, delicious meal.
I'm adding about a tablespoon or so
of my chopped tarragon right into my melted butter.
I'm also adding in one and a half teaspoons of salt
and about half teaspoon of cracked black pepper.
All right, stir that together so it's nice and mixed up.
Now for the fun part.
We get to rub this all over our chicken,
under the skin and over to.
I was just thinking like, hmm,
should I stitch this skin back together?
But it was gonna give some major
Nightmare Before Christmas vibes
and I didn't wanna do that to you.
So get that all in the cavities
surrounding the breast, surrounding the thighs.
It's actually really easy and painless
if you just use a spoon to add this in here.
I'm also gonna spoon this butter mixture
all over the skin, over, under, in, and out.
And now it's time to get our chicken together.
Grab your onion.
I'm gonna just have a little bed
of sliced onion all around it.
My garlic goes into the chicken cavity
along with about three sprigs of thyme
this will give it a nice aromatic hit.
I'm also squeezing one lemon all over the chicken.
A lot of it's going to like just roll off
but it's gonna be in the pan as well
and the onion will cook in that
and it's gonna be really nice.
I love making roast chicken because
the chicken's cooking in the skin, in the fat,
and it's really gonna be so moist and tender.
And once you just prep it, it's in the oven,
you don't have to worry about it until it's done
and it smells amazing.
Pop the lemon halves right into the chicken as well.
You wanna fold the wings under the body so they don't burn.
Now I'm gonna grab some kitchen twine
and tie the legs together.
This will help everything cook nice and evenly.
If those wings or the legs were sticking out,
they would really burn while the rest
of your chicken was trying to cook through.
I have a little bit more thyme, about three sprigs.
I'm gonna lay that around with the onions as well.
Time to wash those hands one more time.
- [Narrator] The water temperature should be that
which is comfortable to the skin.
- If you wanna make a whole meal out of this, have at it.
You can add little baby potatoes here.
You could add like fuyu persimmons if it's in the fall.
So many amazing things can get roasted here,
sliced carrots, everything.
If you are adding something like baby potatoes
or whatever else in here, I will say you should season them
and add some olive oil.
So a little drizzle of oil all over those veggies.
A sprinkle of salt and pepper.
I also pop the chicken liver into here as well.
It's one of my favorite things to eat.
If that's weird, you can let me know in the comments.
I think it's delicious, but some people are like aghast.
This is ready to go into the oven which is at 450.
But as soon as you close that door, reduce to 425.
it bakes for about an hour and 15 to an hour and 30
or until it's golden brown.
And a thermometer inserted into the thickest part reads 165.
But don't cut it open yet,
we'll talk about that when it comes out.
(upbeat music)
We're gonna baste this chicken every 30 minutes
in its own juices.
We want to keep it nice and moist and not dried out.
Out of the oven in a temp perfectly.
My chicken's done cooking, but it's not ready to touch.
It needs time to rest
so let it sit for about 20 minutes.
All those juices are gonna be reabsorbed
and your chicken's gonna be perfect.
If you cut it right now, you'll lose all the juices
and your chicken, which is perfect,
will actually be dry
so just give it the time it needs to rest.
In the meantime, you could make a salad,
set the table, or kick your heels up and relax.
I'm serving this chicken up for dinner.
I've been sneaking bites left and right
and I've almost finished all the caramelized onions
and the liver's gone too.
That chicken is melt in your mouth tender,
packed with flavor.
And the potatoes, and the onions
are caramelized to perfection.
Even the lemon comes through throughout.
I hope you get a chance to make this recipe
and if you like this video, check out my dinner playlist.
(upbeat music continues)