« Roasted Carrots with Dill | Main | Tortellini Salad »
September 27, 2007
Simple Baked Chicken with Rosemary
This week it has been all about simple in terms of food here at our house. I got through stages where I like things a bit more complicated and then I go through stages where I like simple, straight forward food. Baked Chicken is one of those simple and straight forward type dishes that always hits the spot.
There are so many things you can do while baking a chicken. You can mix up the spices, you can go with barbeque, you can make it plain Jane, but no matter what you do the key is making it what you like. It's versatile and easy, both of which are nice especially on a week night when things can be a little crazy. My personal favorite herb for chicken is rosemary. It's the perfect compliment.
What You'll Need:
1 chicken, rinsed and dried
1 small onion, chopped in half (Note: You don't even have to peel the onion.)
1 lemon, chopped in half (Optional)
Extra virgin olive oil (Note: You can use butter if you like, BUT olive oil is healthier and I think it tastes better for chicken as well.)
Rosemary leaves pulled from the stem (Note: I think the more rosemary the better, but if you want to go with less that's ok too. I wouldn't use less than a tablespoon though.)
Coarse sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
First when baking a chicken you need to decide which way you're going to go. You can either preheat the oven to 350 F and bake the chicken for a couple of hours or until internal temperature reaches around 180 F OR you can preheat the oven to 450 F and cook it for an hour or until internal temperature reaches around 180 F. Either way works and both ways are delicious. The 350 F method is a bit juicier, but the 450 F makes for a crisper out shell. Last night I chose to go with the 450 F route. So which ever method you choose preheat your oven to that temperature.
Rinse your chicken and pat dry. Place in a baking dish. Stuff the chicken with the onion and/or lemon. Cover the outside of the chicken with olive oil and sprinkle with rosemary, coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Bake according to the temperature instructions above. Remove from the oven and let sit for 10-15 minutes before cutting.
Notes: Like I said above there are numerous ways you can bake a chicken. You can make an Old Bay Chicken by covering the chicken in Old Bay. You can use thyme instead of rosemary or even sage. What you choose is completely up to you and each time it's like you've made an entirely different dish. You can also use different stuffing medium such as garlic and/or apple. Mix it up.
Posted by Dianne at September 27, 2007 2:08 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.diannesdishes.com/~dianne1/cgi-bin/mt/mt-t.cgi/308