The Portrait of Nancy's Chicken

Last week was chicken week in our house.  Chicken, chicken, and more chicken.  What can I say?  It was on sale. 


Tony never complains about it, though.  He'll eat anything I put in front of him, thankfully!  Everyday without fail he'll call home from work and ask, "What are you doing for dinner?"



No matter how I answer, he'll always say, "Cool."


I love him.


Alexa will ask, "Is that the good chicken?" 


I miss her.


Kyle on the other hand will ask me the same question when he gets home from school. 
When I tell him, his answer will either be, "Do I like that?",
which in that case I always answer, yes, or he will say "Again?!", which is usually during a chicken week.


I love him, too.

I have to admit, even I was getting board with the chicken recipes in my rotation last week. 


Instead of just throwing the roaster chicken in the oven rubbed in olive oil and Everglades Seasoning (which by the way is the best seasoning in my cabinet)  I decided to throw caution to the wind and make use of the fresh herbs that have been languishing in my garden. 


The days are getting shorter and the nights cooler, my window of opportunity is closing rapidly. 


The recipe I used is not really a recipe.  There aren't any exact ingredients, no measuring.  My mother would be proud, this is how she cooks.


I gathered up a bunch of fresh herbs from my garden, flat-leaf parsley, rosemary, chives, thyme & basil and threw them in my handy chopper along with around 2 teaspoons of kosher salt (more or less), a generous grind of black pepper, 4 cloves of garlic, a few shakes of Everglades seasoning (any seasoning will do), 4 TBSP butter and 1 TBSP extra virgin olive oil.


You can easily add more butter and oil depending on the size of your chicken.


I gave the chopper a wiz until the butter and oil combined to look like a smooth paste.  Just eye-ball it and add more butter or oil to get that consistency. 


After washing & drying my roaster I loosened the skin on the breast meat, took a scoop on herb butter mixture and worked it under the skin, getting it all around the breast meat.  I took another scoop and worked it around the cavity of the chicken.  Rub more mixture all around the outside of the roaster.  Use all of the mixture, go back under the skin with it, trust me.  I gave the outside of the chicken another shot of seasoned salt or salt/pepper.


I popped it in a preheated 400 degree oven for 15 minutes then reduced the temp to 350 and cooked it until done (in my case it was when the pop-up timer, well, popped)


Here's the portrait of mine complete with pop-up timer:

Gee, Nancy, can you fit "pop-up" into anymore sentences in this post?


Try it, have fun with it, make it your own!


Tonight I'm making my, What the Heck to do With Your Leftover Chicken, Creamed Chicken with the leftover chicken, which I'm sure will have no leftovers.


Enjoy!