Tonight I’m going to cook up a whole chicken and season it with garlic and olive oil. I never cooked a whole chicken until about 3 years into my marriage when my husband and I read how it is better to cook a whole chicken because you avoid the risk of using parts from unhealthy chickens. Plus you can use the carcass to make chicken stock. It was actually my husband who cooked it first as I had no idea what I was doing. Later on however I got tired of asking him what to do so I called my mother in law and asked her how she cooked her chicken. She does it very simply, she rubs olive oil on it and bakes it. Sometimes she uses butter, but I doubt that is as healthy. I told her we did a mix of olive oil and crushed parsley and she said that way is good too. Cooking a whole chicken is simple, but you have to be around for a few hours while it is in the oven.
So all in all, I now know there are many ways to season a chicken and it doesn’t have to be fancy shmancy either. But tonight, what I will do is slice some garlic or leave whole if they are small, and slide them under the skin of the chicken. Not too many otherwise it’s overpowering. After all we want the chicken flavor to be noticable right? I do this around the chicken, in the legs, thighs, breasts, back etc. Then I rub the whole thing with olive oil (please note this is of course after the whole chicken has been thoroughly cleaned out and rinsed). I then cook the chicken at 350 for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours in a preheaded oven. I keep a sheet of tin foil tented over the top to prevent burning, then I remove it the last 30 minutes or so.
I am extremely careful (almost paranoid… okay totally paranoid) about undercooked chicken so not only do I check the meat manually but I also look to see how much juice/liquid comes out. And if clear liquid is really covering the bottom of the pan where I’d need a spoon to scoop it out, then I know it is doing good and most likely okay. One time I thought the chicken was done by manually checking, but noticed not as much juice was in the pan as normal, I went ahead and served the chicken and guess what? I had to put the chicken back in the oven for 30 minutes because sure enough there was pink in some of the meat that I didn’t originally see.
You can check out the full recipe and instructions at www.simpleitaliancooking.com and feel free to use it for your own meal. The website also includes suggestions for side dishes.
Sincerely,
Liz
Related posts:
- Using Roasted Garlic to Make Garlic Bread Here is an easy way to create some tasty garlic bread next time you are cooking a meal. It makes...
- Weekly Recipe Posted: Roasted Whole Chicken Recipe with Rosemary You can never run out of ideas for how to cook a whole chicken. There are various techniques with the...
- Many Ways to Season a Chicken for Roasting What is more intimidating? Having one way of preparing a recipe or having a range of options? When I first...
- Easy Italian Garlic Bread Well, I can’t say I could make it any easier. I love garlic bread and I’ve tried it with fresh...
- New Recipe for Chicken Piccata Posted This week’s Italian recipe is Chicken Piccata. I’ve seen a variety of definitions for what “piccata” means from “cooked” to...