Oh, chicken… you’re so gorgeous. This is the 4th whole chicken I’ve roasted in as many weeks and while the first was nothing special in the looks department, I am developing some mad chicken skillz! Even when I host Thanksgiving dinner, I always have help with the roasting so I’m pretty proud of myself (work with me here). These, my first 4 solo birds, have become a true craving. I’m almost scared to make them too often because I fear that we’ll overdo it and never want them again.

Detail time… because if you don’t roast whole chickens ever or often, I think it would be a good idea to start today! With the help of Swanson, I figured out that the ideal roasting liquid is 2 parts chicken broth to one part orange juice. It makes everything sweet and flavorful and it’s healthy, too!
I stuff my birds with celery, onion, whole garlic cloves, chunks of lemon and 3-4 sprigs of fresh rosemary. For the skin, I make an herb paste of a couple tablespoons of olive oil with poultry seasoning, fresh and dried rosemary, garlic salt, lemon & herb seasoning, fresh ground black pepper, and thyme. I rub the paste all over the top and also under the skin on the breast side.
And because this is an easy one pot meal, new potatoes, baby carrots and any leftover chunks of onion go on the bottom of the roasting pan, swimming in the orange juice and broth mixture (about 3 cups of it), picking up a sweet glaze that’s just enough to make them special.
I bake covered for about 75 minutes at 375º or until it’s about 10 degrees from being done. Then I remove the cover and brush the top of the bird and the potatoes with a tablespoon of melted butter, crank up the heat to 425º and stick the bird back in to brown (oooh… nice alliteration). Did you notice that the only added fat in this entire meal is about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and one tablespoon of butter? It did not escape me… not any more than the fact that this chicken does NOT taste healthy and in fact I can even eat and enjoy the super tender and juicy white meat, which I would normally shun in favor of cardboard or packing peanuts.
Really, just roast TWO. It’s just as easy and they taste even better the second day.
More from the vacation is coming soon — I still need to sort through it and figure out what to post.