Rosemary Free-Range Organic Whole Chicken

Dinner tonight was a yummy organic free-range whole chicken! On a budget? Whole chickens are a great way to get some bang for your buck. You get a whole chicken to eat on for dinner, you get leftovers, and if you trim the meat from the carcass when you've eaten all you can eat, you can then freeze the extra trimmed meat to use in a salad, enchiladas, or really whatever you can think of later.  So basically if you have a family of 2, like us, you can get 3 meals out of it and if you have a bigger family, you will get at least 2 out of it.  If you're really adventurous, which I have not been till now (I'll let ya know how it goes), you can also make your own chicken stock from the carcass.

Basically a whole chicken is amazing and it gives you a chance to be respectful to the chicken by not wasting any of it.

So now we have covered how whole chickens are great on a budget and now it's time to cover how absolutely yummy they can be! 

Whole chickens have a lot of different flavor combos that require very little work (which is one of the reasons they get a 👍).  Tonight I made a Rosemary Chicken with carrots, onions, frozen peas, and I threw in a few potatoes.  I rarely use potatoes because of the starch, but I also don't believe in throwing food out and I had to use this potato up.

Ingredients

1 whole chicken

6 organic carrots chopped

1 organic onion chopped

1/2 organic bag frozen peas

1 russet potato cubes

1 tbsp onion powder

1 tbsp garlic powder

1/2 tbsp fresh rosemary

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Place the chicken in a roasting pan with the chopped veggies arranged around it. In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients.  All the insides of my chicken had been removed, but make sure to double check inside and pull out any insides if there are any. Then separate the skin from the body of the chicken with your fingers 

Then take the dry rub and rub it all over the top of the skin and under the skin (for good flavor) 

After saturating the entire chicken with the dry rub, whatever seasoning is left over sprinkle on the veggies. Then pour 1 cup of water on all the veggies (this will help them cook and not burn). 

Place in the oven with the lid for about 30 minutes then uncover to let the chicken brown and crisp.  I use a meat thermometer to gauge when my meat is done. I have learned the hard way it is the best way for me to determine when the meat is done without over cooking.  It took my whole chicken 1 hour and 10 min to cook, but I have also learned every oven is a little different. 

The rosemary added a beautiful aromatic touch to the savoriness of the chicken. I definitely recommend this guy, it will be a family pleaser.