When Ryan got home from work today and saw this beast on the kitchen table, he immediately stopped and said, “Whoa!”
Apparently I did a little dance around the table to direct his attention to the chicken because his next words were, “Ooh, I like your moves!”
What can I say? I was awfully proud of preparing a whole roasted chicken all by myself. I’ve made a whole chicken a handful of times before and it always elicits a sense of accomplishment in me and seems to be an impressive dish to others.
But, to be honest, this dinner really wasn’t that hard to make! The hands on time was only about eight minutes and it took about an hour and 15 minutes to cook in the oven. It was actually more simple to make than my favorite meatloaf!
I prepared the chicken by following a super-simple recipe from Cooking Light that I had tucked away in a binder of recipes I put together a few years ago.
Ryan and I enjoyed it with a side of Annie Chun’s multi-grain sticky rice that the company sent me to try.
This rice is so, so good! I like it about ten thousand times more than regular rice, which I find to be quite bland. The sticky rice has a much more appealing texture and the flavor is almost nutty. Delish!
Ryan and I both went back for seconds of chicken and veggies.
I love it when chicken isn’t dry and seems to fall off the bone. For such an easy recipe, I am quite impressed with the end result.
I actually ended up making the chicken because I compared the price of a whole chicken to chicken breasts at the grocery store this week and the whole chicken was significantly cheaper. The entire chicken wasn’t even four dollars and it easily fed two people (and a dog) with leftovers to boot.
I’m already brainstorming ideas for the leftover chicken and see BBQ chicken salad in my future…
Time to hang with my little family!
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Now that’s a dinner worth dancing around! It reminds me of this amazing roast chicken my mom used to make when we were growing up – she would stuff it with the most delicious rice…I need to remind her about this!
I looked at the recipe, and it says to discard the skin and veggies. Am I reading this wrong the skin is the best part. And the veggies look delicious, and look like they were thoroughly enjoyed?
P.s. about the person who made a comment on you cutting some meat out of your diet. I enjoy reading your blog for the realness of your meals, you show how you can eat great food and still be healthy and the occasional treat is a-okay!
ha! we ate the skin AND the veggies and i commented to ryan about the same thing!
Looks like some tasty chicken 🙂
Whoa for sure! Roasting a whole chicken in the oven is a go-to dinner around here. It is so comforting and delicious, and we get several meals out of it. I love leftover roast chicken on sandwiches the next day with my signature garlic yogurt mayo sauce. Out of this world!
I’ve never tried stuffing the chicken before….hmmm….looks like it’s time to get into the kitchen!
I’m going to have to try that. It looks delicious! A whole chicken would be perfect for my fiancé and I because he prefers white meat and I prefer dark.
It looks really good! In Portugal it’s almost lunch time… Hummmm….
Yummy!!! Nothing beats roasted chicken!
Roast chicken is so good and such a comforting meal! Congrats on cooking your first! I made the engagement chicken almost a year ago and it definitely worked! It tasted really good 🙂
FYI, you HAVE to remember that whole chickens have bones and fat that boneless, skinless chicken does not have. When you buy a whole chicken, you are still paying per pound and you are buying bones and fat and skin. If you actually compare the weight of the meat that you get with one vs. the other, I would venture to say buying boneless, skinless chicken is almost always cheaper, especially if you buy it when it’s on sale. I never pay more than $2.50/lb for chicken and typically it’s closer to $1.80 – $2.00 per pound. I buy several pounds (like 16 – 20) at a time when it’s on sale, or just buy from Sam’s (or Costco, whatever is around you) because their chicken is always around $2/lb. I remember a friend using the price thing as a justification for buying the whole chickens, but not much meat came off the bone as compared to getting a full chicken breast. Just a thought…
Yum! Looks like something I will have to try!
Roasting a whole chicken makes me feel like I’m a kitchen superstar. But then I try to carve it and that feeling quickly goes away. It inevitably looks like a chicken massacre on my countertop. Delicious, just not pretty.
I’m completely with you–when you make a whole chicken, it feels like such an accomplishment! Even though it’s really not that hard, something about seeing that big finished bird makes you feel like a domestic goddess! Yours looks fantastic, too.
Some day I will muster up the courage to tackle cooking a whole chicken… some day.
I need to come to your house and eat! That looks so good and on your previous post, I love Spaghetti Squash! I had for the first time 2 weeks ago and I’m pretty geeky to say, but I love how to cook it, I thought it was so cool when it just shreds apart!
I LOVE cooking whole chickens, not only because it is super easy and there is always leftovers, but it IS so much cheaper!!
However, the “whole chicken” weirds my boyfriend out so he always makes me shy away from it 🙂
That’s the best thing about roasted chicken, it only LOOKS more difficult than it is. I like to roast a chicken for Sunday dinners in the fall and winter. It makes my whole apartment smell amazing, and, being that I live alone, it can feed me for days. I also like to freeze the bones to make soup later.
Woah… $4?!? We’re getting ripped off up here :p! We buy our meat from a specialty grain fed, no preservative, meat store.. but still.. I don’t think that gives them the right to charge $10 MORE! lol
Hey lady – just came across this post and have a ques for ya (I bought a whole chicken tonight): How do you remove the “stuff” inside (or even know *what* to remove)? Total newbie over here!
hey!! i removed everything that was packaged in a little package inside the chicken – the gibblets!
Sweet thanks – I’m gonna give it a try tonight!