Roasting a chicken is a great way to experiment with your favorite spices of the world. It's also a way you can feed your family for a couple of days. Consider all the options for meals during the week. Enchiladas. quesadillas, chicken sandwiches, salad, and maybe, soup. As the economy "tanks", people are looking for ways to make their dollars go a little further. Enter the versatile chicken. Make that an organic chicken...one that has smaller breasts because they're not pumped full of fluids, aka, sodium solution. You've all seen those packages of plump chicken breasts displayed in the supermarket. Seriously, do you think those chickens grow that big on their own?
As I climb down off my soapbox, here's a beautiful way to roast a chicken, using a new addition to my herb garden, lemon balm. If you don't have or can't find it, substitute lemon thyme.
Ingredients:
4 lb. roasting whole chicken, preferably organic
salt & pepper
herb de Provence, about 1-2 Tbsp
1/4 cup olive oil
about 6-8 whole lemon balm leaves
For the glaze:
1/3 oil
1 Tbsp honey
1 tsp zest of ginger
1 tsp lemon balm chopped
Set oven to 325 degrees.
After cleaning and removing giblets from inside of the chicken, place it in a roasting pan. With your fingertips, loosen the skin on both sides of the breastbone and slide the lemon balm leaves in there. Sprinkle salt and pepper onto the bird. Pour the oil onto the bird with the lemon balm and start to massage the spices in. Put the bird into the oven to roast and make the glaze by just mixing the oil, leaves, honey and ginger together in a bowl. Bake the 4lb chicken for approximately 2 1/2 hours, basting every 30 minutes with the glaze and pan juices. You could even throw in some cut up potatoes and/or carrots during the last 45 minutes. So good!
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