Juicy Roast

Costco had a great coupon that expired yesterday. Buy one double pack of whole chickens and get one free! So I had to buy them. Now I have four whole chickens that I need to use. Not at once of course but why not start early? I decided to roast one for the first time since the last time I cooked a whole chicken I used the crock pot.

So when I have an idea and don't have a recipe where do I go? The What's Cooking board of course! There were two suggestions for roasting the chicken. Elly Says Opa had a very yummy roasted chicken and a fellow nestie recommended Giada's Garlic and Citrus Chicken. So I decided to make Elly's then and try Giada's next weekend.

Source: Elly Says Opa

Roasted Chicken

• 1 whole (5 lb.) chicken
• 1 onion, quartered
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp minced garlic
• 1 Tbsp dried thyme, plus 1 tsp. additional dried thyme
• 1 Tbsp dried rosemary
• a few sage leaves (I omitted)
• 2 Tbsp. I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Light
• olive oil spray
• baby yukon gold potatoes halved (I also included a sweet potato and red potatoes)
• zucchini, cut into 1" chunks
• salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 425 and place your rack in the lower third of the oven (so that the chicken will basically be cooking in the center of the oven).

Clean/scrub the potatoes. Add them to the roasting pan with the zucchini and spray with olive oil spray. Add just a little bit of salt and pepper. Toss together. Nestle the roasting rack into the pan.

Remove the giblets/neck from the cavity of the chicken. Rinse the chicken and pat it dry. Sprinkle the cavity with salt and pepper, and then stuff it with the thyme, lemon juice, onion, garlic, and rosemary.

Mix the tsp. of dried thyme with the softened butter. Carefully pull the skin of the chicken away from the meat and rub the herb butter in between the skin and the meat (you can just put a few globs of the butter in front of the breast and then massage the butter back; be sure to also add a little to the drumsticks/thighs). Spray the skin with just a little bit of olive oil spray and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper.

Place the chicken on the roasting rack (or on the vegetables) and roast until the internal temperature reaches 170 (check at the thickest part of the thigh). Place the chicken under a foil tent for 10 minutes before serving.

Chicken - 6 WW points for 5 ounces
Veggies - 1.5 WW points for 1 cup potatoes and veggies