Father's day dinner- Roast chicken

Ready to go in the oven

All done!

Ryan got to choose anything he wanted me to cook for dinner, and he chose a whole roasted chicken.  This actually works perfectly, because they were on sale at Publix, and by buying a 6-lb roaster, it'll provide leftovers for the upcoming week.  This is my version of perfectly roasted chicken with basil, thyme, lemon butter.

Ingredients:

1 roaster chicken

1 stick of room temperature butter

1 cup of chopped fresh basil

2 tablespoons dried thyme (I prefer fresh, but they were out of it at the store)

zest of 2 lemons

1 tablespoon of kosher salt

1/2 tablespoon of pepper

4 small onions, quartered and peeled

4 lemons

1/2 bag of baby carrotts

3 cups of chicken stock

1/2 cup of marsala or sherry

2 tablespoons flour

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.  Clean and pat dry a whole roaster chicken (preferably an organic, free-range, but sometimes you have to make due with the Publix brand like I am).  Place chicken on roasting rack.  Meanwhile mix together butter, basil, thyme, lemon zest, salt, and pepper in a small bowl.  Once butter mixture has come together, rub all over (yes, I know, yuck!) inside and out of the chicken (including underneath the skin).  Add the onions, baby carrots, and one cup of the chicken stock to the bottom of the roasting rack/pan.  Squeeze the juice of the lemons all over the chicken and vegetables and place the squeezed lemons in the chicken cavity and in the rack.  Place in oven for 45 minutes at this temperature.  After that, baste with the liquid in the roasting rack, and turn oven temparature down to 350 degrees.  Cook until chicken reaches an internal temparature of 170 degrees, basting every 20 minutes.  For our size chicken, it cooked for another 90 minutes. 

Once chicken is cooked, take out of the pan and let rest on a cutting board for 10 minutes or more.  Using a slotted spoon, take out veggies and place in a bowl (discarding lemons) and enjoy as a delicious side dish.  Put roasting pan on top of two burners at a low temperature and whisk in a slurry of 1/2 cup of stock and 2 tablespoons of flour.  Also, add in marsala.  Whisk all together to make a gravy. Add more stock if needed.  Serve chicken with roasted vegetables and baked potato and cover everything with this citrusy gravy and enjoy!

(Leftover recipes to follow)