Bronx Thanksgiving Recipes - Roast Chicken

Since I will be having turkey on Thursday, I decided to make a roast chicken for the meat-eaters at the potluck (definitely in the minority). Sarah had sent me a recipe not too long ago that I wanted to try, so this is adapted from her. It turned out moist and delicious!

Ingredients
1 Chicken (mine was 8.5 lbs)
12 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
2 lbs red bliss potatoes, quartered
2 large parsnips (4 carrot-sized ones), sliced
1 large onion, cut into large pieces
8 oz white mushrooms, sliced
rosemary
thyme
3 tbs butter, cut into small pieces
3 cups water

Directions
Preset oven to 425.
Wash the chicken with water. Take out the bag inside the cavity. Reserve for soup or discard.
Put the chicken in a roasting pan. Rub the chicken skin with peeled garlic and salt.

Cut little holes in the skin and put in fresh cloves of garlic throughout, including a few pieces in the cavity. Rub the skin with butter and place small pieces of butter under the skin and in the cavity. Sprinkle fresh rosemary and thyme all over. Salt and pepper too.

Around the chicken put parsnips, potatoes, onions, mushrooms and remaining garlic (or any vegetables you have around). They roast wonderfully, and they give the chicken a nice flavor. You can also put some inside the cavity to roast. Alternately, you could put stuffing inside.

Add water all rround so that the chicken and vegetables are sitting in about an inch of water.
Put it in the oven for 30 minutes. Reduce temperature to 375 and cook another 2 1/2-3 hours until the inside of a leg can be cut open without pinkness or colored juice. Baste every 10 minutes or so as it cooks. Add more water as needed.

Since it is a large chicken it took longer than I thought to cook. When it was done, however, the skin was golden brown and crispy and the inside was moist and delicious. There was an incredible aroma of butter and roasted vegetables that almost turned a few vegetarians back to the dark side.


Evan did a stellar job carving the chicken like a pro. The chicken turned out delicious and a big hit - there wasn't a scrap left. The vegetables were frickin awesome too.