One of the good things about the weekend is that you have time to make big dinners. This weekend I made roasted chicken dinner. This was the first time that I cooked an entire chicken. I am not sure why I was hesitant about cooking an entire chicken as it turned out to be pretty easy. I decided to season the chicken in a simple fashion with lemon and oregano. The chicken turned out pretty good. It was nice and tasty. I had some lemon roasted potatoes and some spinach with feta dressing with the roasted chicken. Overall it was a really tasty meal. I only cooked a small chicken but I have a lot of left over chicken meat to use in other dishes. Now I also have a chicken carcass with which I can make some home made chicken stock.
Lemon and Oregano Roast Chicken
Prep Time: 30 minutes Cook Time: 2 hours Total Time: 2 hours 30 minutes Servings: 4
ingredients
- 1 (3 pound) chicken (rinsed and patted dry)
- 1 lemon (quartered)
- 4 sprigs fresh oregano (optional)
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 lemon (zest and juice)
- 2 tablespoons fresh oregano (or 2 teaspoons dried)
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
directions
- Fill the cavity with the lemon quarters, oregano sprigs and garlic.
- Puree the lemon zest, juice, oregano, garlic, oil, salt and pepper in a food processor.
- Rub the mixture all over the chicken and under the skin of the chicken as much as possible.
- Place the chicken in a roasting pan and let it come to room temperature.
- Roast in a preheated 350F/180C oven until done, about 1 1/2 – 2 hours. (It is done when the juices run clear when you slice just behind the drumstick or when a meat thermometer reads 170F.)
- Remove from oven and let rest for 20 minutes.
this looks perfect for a weeknight meal.
Once again, few recipes can beat this simple yet delicious roast chicken.
That looks very appetizing– I don’t know what it is with chicken and that hint of citrus flavor but it gives it a certain something! 🙂
I love when the most intimidating meals to make turn out to be a cinch! Can I dig in too! 🙂 So it took me a few days for your comment to sink in about changing the S(number). I kept looking at the HTML and it said 1600 so I was confused.. But I realized that I missed the other S(number) that was 320 so I changed my first page pixels. Thanks so much for you help again!
sounds like the perfect flavor pairings. i don’t know why but i am afraid to cook a whole chicken as well!
One of the great pleasures in life is a simple well-roasted chicken! It’s one of my favorite Sunday meals as well. Your chicken looks juicy and delicious. Beautiful!
I was the same way about cooking a whole bird–not sure why, but I always put it off as something alien and probably difficult. Once I finally tried it, I realized what a wonderful way to get a lot of food on the cheap (money and effort) and now I do it all the time!
The chicken (and the accompanying potatoes) look great and lemon is a great way to wake them up. I would also speculate that a dab of honey towards the last 5 or 10 minutes of cooking might make for some nice caramelized flavors on the chicken.
Lemon & chicken are just made to be together. With the lemon potatoes this meal would have been a dream 😀
This sounds delicious! I especially want to try those lemon potatoes.
Roasting a chicken (or usually two) is a once a week thing in our house. One for dinner, the other one for whatever you can imagine–soup, enchiladas, or just good old sandwiches.
Yours looks like a plate full of roast chicken-y goodness!
I’ve been trying to roast a chicken each weekend while it’s still cold outside. I save the bones for making stock, and any leftover meat goes into chicken salad or other dishes during the week. Now that you have done it once and see how easy it is, I bet you make it again and again!
That looks like a pretty tasty dinner. I love roast chicken for it’s leftovers and carcass, just as much as for eating it when just made.
I remember reading in some book by some chef, that he roasted a chicken every single weekend. It really is the perfect dinner!
Hi, I have a simpler recipe from The Women’s Weekly posted on my blog. It doesn’t require the oregano which is not a easily found herb in Malaysia but is suplemented by black pepper instead. One lemon divided to two id stuffed in the cavity instead of under the skin.
I posted a recipe in my link for a chicken recipe
this is a new recipe I recently found
I made it for a family dinner
the entire family enjoyed it very much
very nice blog I appreciate good blog content
I just made this for dinner and it was GREAT!!!
The only thing I did different was I put it in my Rotisserie Oven. I think that made it even better because it let the lemons that were in the middle spread their juices around more. Was tender, moist, and flavored all over. I even injected a little of the juice under the skin, too. Will be making this again.