Prep for Success Recipes: Roast chicken
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Remove giblets from inside the chicken. To clean, run cold water into body cavity of chicken several times. Also clean the outside of the chicken under running cold water. Pat chicken dry with paper towels. Place in a roasting pan.
- If desired, for a bit more spiciness, cut a scotch bonnet pepper in half, and remove the stem and seeds. Rub chicken all over with the inside of both halves of the pepper. After rubbing the chicken with the pepper, either dice the pepper and place it inside the chicken cavity (which will make the gravy spicier), or discard it.
- Lift the skin, and stuff several small cubes of butter between the skin and the chicken, then rub the chicken all over with the remaining butter.
- Season the chicken with salt, pepper, Season All and finely chopped seasoning (or scotch bonnet) pepper, if desired. Rub seasonings into chicken.
- In a small bowl, season the onion, bell pepper and celery with a little salt and black pepper. Spread onions, bell pepper and celery on the top and bottom, as well as around and on the inside of the chicken.
- Cover tightly with aluminum foil but try to prevent it from touching the chicken.
- Bake for 1-½ to 2 hours. Uncover and bake a further 15 minutes, or until brown.
- Move chicken to a platter. Let stand for a few minutes before carving.
- Scrape the bottom and sides of the roasting pan to loosen the brown bits and then pour off all the contents of the roasting pan into a
medium saucepan. - Add about 2 tablespoons of water to the drippings in the saucepan and bring to a gentle boil. At this point the gravy can be thickened, if desired, by mixing 1 teaspoon of flour with 2 to 4 tablespoons of cold water to form a paste, and then stirring this into the saucepan continuously until the gravy is smooth and thickened.
- Serve the gravy over the chicken, stuffing and rice or potato.
Published September 21, 2011
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