Roast Chicken and Potatoes

This is one of my favorite ways to cook chicken.

Line a roasting pan or any other oven proof dish with foil (I always do this because I hate cleaning up the crazy pan mess.)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Take about 4-6 medium potatoes and cut them up into 1 inch square pieces (this would be for a family of four and would leave leftovers). Toss them in a bit of olive oil - just enough to coat and sprinkle on salt and pepper. Place these in the pan.

Take a lemon or an orange - whatever you have - and cut slashes through the skin in several places. Place this inside the chicken cavity. If the orange or lemon does not fit, cut it in half and stuff it in. Some of the lemon will stick out.

Put the chicken on top of the potatoes and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sometimes I rub a bit of olive oil on the top of it but this time I did not.

Set the timer for 30 minutes. When it goes off take the pan out of the oven and move the potatoes around to make sure that they are cooking evenly. Also - lift the chicken up and pour out the juices from inside the chicken into the pan. This will all cook together and make the potatoes extra tasty.

Set the timer for another 30 minutes and when that timer goes repeat the last step of emptying the juice out of the chicken and then moving around the potatoes. I also at this time, squirt some lemon juice over the chicken and onto the potatoes. You can use a real lemon or use "Real Lemon" from a bottle.

Back in the oven now for about 15 minutes - depending on the size of the chicken. Start testing to see if it is done. Use a meat thermometer for best results.

According to the website recipes.howstuffworks.com:
"For whole chickens, a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh, but not near bone or fat, should register 180 to 185 degrees Fahrenheit before removing from the oven." http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/tools-and-techniques/how-to-cook-chicken8.htm

When it is done, take it out of the pan and sit it on a cutting board to "rest" for about 5-10 minutes. I usually make a little tent out of foil and set that over top to keep the moisture from escaping. At this time I put the potatoes back in the hot oven (which has been turned off) to keep warm and to mix with the juices from the chicken.

Carve the chicken - I like Chef Tell's way of carving chicken the best - http://www.mbctv.com/cheftell/turkey.html - in this post he is talking about a turkey but it is the same message for a whole chicken. Chef Tell was one of my favorite chefs on tv while I lived in San Francisco in the mid 1990s. I learned a lot from watching him cook.

We will often put the chicken back in the pan with the potatoes to serve. I learned this trick from watching Michael Smith - he is my current favorite. http://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipes/Main/Chicken/recipe.html?dishid=9638 - here he explains his version of roasted chicken. Fabulous.

Enjoy.
(see next post for how I will use the leftovers from this dish for something completely different...)