Roast Chicken with Onions and Carrots

July 8, 2012 | No Comments

I was at the store the other day, looking at the meat counter, trying to decide what to cook for this weeks dinners. My eyes lingered on a lovely organic 4 pound chicken, that I knew would be delicious roasted.

That day, the weather was cool enough to turn on the oven, and we have not had roast chicken in a while, and quite frankly I wanted to try my hand in trussing one. When I roasted chickens in the past, I would always have Dominic truss the birds for me, or I would skip the trussing altogether.

I have been reading about trussing, and how it is a very important step to insure the juices and flavors stay in your bird. I found the video that I linked to and watched it about 10 times, going back and forth from my computer to my chicken. It took me about 20 minutes to figure out how to truss a chicken, and I think it is well worth it.

I also know that practice makes perfect and next time my bird will be even juicier than this one, which will be some feat.

Roast Chicken with Onions and Carrots

Recipe type: Main Course

Author: Jillian

Ingredients

4-5 pound chicken
3 medium onions, peeled and halved
3 washed unpeeled carrots, cut in logs
2 tsp kosher salt
5 grinds of black pepper

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 450°F.
Rinse the chicken, pull out the innards, then dry it very well with kitchen towels, or paper towels.
Cut 1 onion in half, remove onion skin, and insert onion halves into cavity.
Salt and pepper the cavity
Truss the bird with butcher’s twine(see link to Michael Ruhlman’s tutorial above). My chicken is not perfectly trussed as you can see, but I will keep practicing.
Sprinkle salt and grind pepper over the entire exterior of the chicken.
Add vegetables to dutch oven
Add chicken to dutch oven, cover and place in preheated oven.
I cook my chicken 20 minutes per pound.
-15 minutes before it is done, uncover and allow skin to brown and crisp, for presentation and if you are going to eat the skin.
Take dutch oven out of oven
Take chicken out of dutch oven carefully with tongs
Let it rest for 15 minutes on a cutting board.
Remove the twine.
Carve or chop into pieces, wings, legs, thighs, breasts
Save bones and make stock