Today on The Stay At Home Chef
I'm showing you How to Roast a Chicken.
Making your own roasted chicken at home is super easy!
And it totally puts those store bought rotisserie chickens to shame.
Today I'm going to show you how to make a Lemon Herb Chicken that will quickly become your family favorite.
We'll start by making our seasoning mix.
You'll need 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt,
1 teaspoon of dried basil,
1 teaspoon of dried oregano,
1/2 teaspoon of white pepper,
1 teaspoon of paprika,
and 1/2 teaspoon of onion powder,
and then we'll stir this all together.
Set your seasoning to the side.
We're going to use a little bit of that to make a compound butter
You'll need 1/4 cup of softened salted butter.
I'm just going to sprinkle in about 2 teaspoons of our seasoning mix in there,
and use a fork to mash this all together until the seasoning is well combined with the butter.
Next you're going to place your chicken down into a roasting pan.
You can see that mine came with the legs tied together.
If you want to tie yours it does help the chicken bake more evenly,
so just grab some kitchen string and wrap it up.
Now the next thing you need to do is check the interior of the chicken.
Some chickens are sold with all of their giblets inside,
and you'll want to pull those out.
My cavity happens to be empty.
Now there's mixed feelings about whether or not you should rinse your chicken before roasting it.
Rinsing your chicken in the sink will actually spread salmonella,
so I recommend NOT doing that.
Instead I'm just going to use some paper towels to pat my chicken and make sure it's dry.
Now I am using a roasting pan today because that rack keeps your chicken off the bottom,
which means that the bottom skin can crisp up as well as the top.
But if you don't have a roasting pan, don't sweat it!
You can just toss your chicken into a 9x13 pan.
Now you can't be afraid to get in here with your hands because next I'm going to use my finger to loosen up all the skin.
We really want that crispy skin on top and putting some air and separating this helps that skin crisp right up.
You want to go in through the neck area,
and then we can switch it around here and go in through the bottom side as well,
and loosen all of that skin up on top of the breasts,
and then you can do the same thing on the back as well.
Once all that's loosened up I'm going to grab little globs of the butter with all that herb in it,
and I'm going to stuff that underneath the skin, which is actually genius.
They never do this with rotisserie chickens.
That way your seasoning actually gets on the meat itself and doesn't just get stuck to the skin,
and you want to do the back as well,
as most of the butter should be over on the breasts.
Now I realize it's kind of gross to get in there,
and we're not really used to working with our food this closely,
but I'm telling you, stuffing that butter and herbs underneath the skin makes all the difference.
It's a little bit messy,
but I want to get as much butter on top of the breasts as possible,
and then of course wash your hands.
Then you're going to take a lemon and cut it in half and squeeze the lemon juice right over the top of the chicken,
and I have my chicken breast side up.
Then I just stuff those lemon halves inside my chicken,
inside that cavity,
along with a couple sprigs of rosemary which will give this some nice aromatics that will flavor our chicken from the inside out.
Last we're going to take the rest of our seasoning mix and sprinkle it right over the top,
and I make sure I rub it in, pat it so that it stays on there,
and I turn my chicken and rotate it so that I can season the sides,
as well as the back, and get everything on that delicious skin.
The skin, can you tell, is my favorite part.
Get all of it covered with the seasoning.
Now you could put things like potatoes, carrots, and onions in the bottom and make this a complete meal,
but today we're just focusing on the chicken.
So next you're going to roast this in a 450 degree oven for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, reduce the heat to 350 degrees.
About every 15 to 20 minutes you want to take your chicken out and use a baster to suck up some of those juices,
and baste the chicken with its own juices.
As it gets close to being done you also want to insert a meat thermometer in.
The chicken is done when it reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit,
and you want to measure it between the leg and the breast.
Now how long will it take to get to 165 degrees Fahrenheit?
That is a good question!
The time it takes is dependent on how big your chicken is,
so it really varies quite a lot.
That's why I always use a meat thermometer to ensure 100% accuracy.
Just look at this beautiful bird!
Now I'm going to show you how to carve it.
Start by finding the separation between the leg and the breast,
and you kind of pull it back here,
and then we're going to cut along the bone.
So find the bone in there and cut it off.
Then we'll do the same thing with the other leg.
And the same thing with the wing,
we're going to pull it back and cut between the bone.
It should pop right through.
Then we're going to cut off the back bone,
so just cut around the rib cage and you'll pull back the breast.
Then you have your two breasts with a bone running down the middle,
so we'll just want to cut that right out.
Then pull your drumstick off the thigh,
and if you find the right spot here your knife will slide right through.
Then we end up with our 2 thighs, 2 wings, 2 drumsticks, and 2 chicken breasts.
And that's it!
And the best part is, everything I taught you today applies to turkey too,
so now you know how to roast your turkey for next Thanksgiving
Bon appetite!
Thanks for watching!
You can find the full written recipe in the video description.
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