Whole roasted chicken. It’s better than turkey, in my opinion. And my opinion matters. Don’t get me wrong, I love turkey on Thanksgiving. Don’t be cooking no ham on Turkey Day, that is just plain wrong and downright rude. Again, only my opinion. But this chicken could be done on Thanksgiving. I bet no one would care that they weren’t getting turkey when you serve up this juicy, tender, flavorful slab of meaty goodness! Be sure to follow step 6 fully. Don’t be a chicken, or worse, don’t be spineless chicken.
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp dried thyme
- 2 Tbsp Herbs De Provence
- 1 tsp cumin
- 2 Tbsp onion powder
- 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 Tbsp creole seasoning, or any poultry seasoning
- 1 Tbsp paprika
- 1 Tbsp Adobo seasoning
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1 whole chicken, butterflied
Preparation
- Mix all dry seasonings in a bowl and set aside. I know it’s a lot of seasoning, but we don’t want a naked bird. And you want it to taste good, right?
- Butterfly the chicken. No, I don’t mean add the chicken to a cocoon and wait for a miracle. (It’s not going to happen unless God really wants to freak you out.) I mean get your kitchen shears and cut out the spine. (A spineless chicken. Now THAT is a scared chicken, if it weren’t already dead.) If you don’t know how to do this, ask the deli personnel to cut it for you. If you can find one, that is. I swear I’m either waiting in a long line at the deli in the market because they only have one person working, or I’m the only one there and there is no one in sight. So I learned to do it myself.
- Pat the chicken dry. This is a necessary step. It will make the skin more crispy.
- Add oil ( I used olive oil) all over the chicken. Front and back.
- Add juice to the inside of the chicken. And by inside, I mean the butchered side, not the skin side.
- Now add the spice mix. Put a generous amount on the whole chicken. Skin side, butchered side, inside, in the leg cracks, wingtips. I don’t want to see a speck of naked chicken. It looks like a lot. It is a lot. I was afraid to add so much the first time I made this. I was wondering if I would be able to taste chicken at all. But I did! And it was good!
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees. I should have added this step as step number 1, but I didn’t. Lesson learned for you. You should have read the entire recipe before attempting to make this.
- Cover chicken with foil, or a lid if you are using a big enough cast iron pan. You don’t have to use a cast iron pan but it’s my preferred choice. Besides, my granny would come back from heaven and slap me if I didn’t use one.
- Cook for 40-50 minutes. Remove the lid/foil the last ten minutes of cooking to crisp up the skin.
- Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!
Ready in 1 hour. (Unless you are still waiting in the deli line to get your chicken butterflied.)
Serves 2 in my household. It’s that good.
Y’all should know by now that I don’t count calories. Even if I did and it was a kajillion, I would still eat this.
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