Roasted Chicken

Tonight I did a simple roast chicken. Actually I did 2. I have a couple recipes coming up that I need already cooked chicken for so this saves me some time. Plus I am going to make chicken stock from the carcass so this way I can make more with the same amount of work! A win win.
The first thing I did was take my chicken out of the bags and remove everything from the cavities. I saved the necks though to put into the pot for the stock. Then I rinsed my chickens and dried them completely with some paper towels. Now normally I would truss the chicken with some kitchen string. This helps everything cook nice and even but I was out of string. So I just tucked the wings under and called it a day. Now since I am using this chicken for other things also I just did a really simple seasoning. I just salted and peppered the cavities and sprinked about a Tbs or so of salt on the top of each chicken. I then placed it in a 450 degree oven. Yes this is higher then a lot of recipes say but I like to cook it faster and get the skin nice and crispy. For one chicken it should take about 45 mins to cook but my 2 took just under an hour. You want to cook it until the internal temperature is 165 degrees, the juices run clear, or the leg just basically falls off then you pull at it.

When the chicken is done I take it out and put a piece of foil over it and let it rest for about 15 mins. Then I proceed to get a Toy Story Band-Aid out to fix my boo-boo from slicing my finger on the blade to cut the foil. Yeah happens a lot. Now the point of letting the chicken rest is to allow all the juices a few minutes to seep into the meat. If you cut it right away you are just going to let all those yummy juices run right out of the chicken and that is no good. Now while the chicken was resting I went and played on Facebook. Why you ask? Because if not I would of sat there eating all the yummy crispy skin and had to think of a good story to tell my husband on just WHY these chickens came whole with no skin on them and I just don't think he would of fallen for it. So I had to go for the distraction method after of course eating just a little. :)

Now once the chicken is done resting, or you can no longer ignore the calls of the skin, go ahead and cut the bad boy up and enjoy. Now if you are going to make stoke be sure to save ALL the bones. I usually just throw the whole wing in there too, unless of course there is a chunk of crispy skin then I eat that part. Yeah I have a thing for chicken skin.....it's good! Right now I am cooking the chicken stock so I will post all that tomorrow. Enjoy!