A Juicy Roast Chicken

I think I have mastered the infamous roasted chicken!   Here's what I did... Oh, I read a lot of different recipes and created my own.  Yes, that's right.. my own.  So proud of myself!

- 3 lb fryer chicken (Buy the fryer... I'm not sure why but it's just more delicious)
- 1 lemon - 1/2 sliced and 1/2 quartered
- a bunch of fresh rosemary
- 1 onion - thick sliced
- 1/2 cup of butter
- 5 cloves of garic - 2 sliced and 3 peeled and whole
- 1 stalk of celery - 3-4 hunks
- onion powder to taste
- salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.  
2. Clean and pat dry the chicken.  I usually remove the wings because they always seem to flop downwards.  I don't know if you are normally supposed to do this, but hey, this is my recipe.
3.  Ok... I chopped and cut everything in advance and put it on the cutting board.  It was so much easier to prepare the chicken that way.  So, I sliced and quartered the lemon.  I sliced the onion in thick slices.  I sliced 2 garlic cloves and peeled 3.  I chopped up the fresh rosemary.  And cut the celery into pieces.
4.  I placed the chopped onion on the bottom of a 9 x 13 glass pyrex baking dish.  I put the chicken on top of the onion.   Place the chicken breast side up.
5.  Sprinkle the inside and outside of the chicken with salt, pepper and onion powder.
6.  Break the skin along the breast of the chicken and put the lemon and garlic slices underneath the skin.
7.  Put the quartered lemon, 3 tbsps of the butter, whole garlic cloves, celery stalks and rosemary in the cavaity of the chicken.
8.  Dallop the remainder of the butter on the top of the chicken.
9.  Bake the chicken uncovered for about an hour and 15 minutes.  Baste the chicken every 20-30 minutes or so.
10.  Take the chicken out of the oven and cover with aluminum foil and allow to rest for 30 minutes before serving.

DELICIOUS!!!!

I made the chicken with homemade mashed potatoes and roasted broccoli.  Here are those recipes.  I tried both recipes as follows and wouldn't change anything.

Mashed Potatoes - http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Traditional-Mashed-Potatoes/Detail.aspx
This is a very basic recipe.  I like plain, creamy mashed potatoes and this was a perfect recipe for that.

Roasted Broccoli - http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Roasted-Garlic-Lemon-Broccoli/Detail.aspx
I have never tried roasted broccoli before and my husband and I loved it.  I will never make broccoli any other way.

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Until next time. XO, the Cooking Foodie