I'm a big fat (roasted) chicken

I know, I'm posting something that is NOT chocolate.  It's quite a shock for a Monday.  Sometimes I cook meat.  I'd love to say 'oh, I've been roasting chicken for years. My mom taught me.'  But that would be a lie.  I remember seeing my mom do stuff with a whole chicken.  She would wrangle it at the kitchen sink, dull butcher knife in hand (some how, there is never a sharp knife at my mom's house), and chop it up into distinguishable parts.  Then she'd dredge those parts in flour and fry 'em up in some hot oil.  Good old fried chicken.  Staple of the Southern dinner table.  Well, Mo' doesn't fry.  Except for this once (which was soooo good!)  Mom doesn't fry anymore either since we learned of this thing called heart disease.  Anyway, my point.  I had one I'm sure of it.  Oh yeah, roasted chicken. Didn't learn it from mom.  Learned it from this lovely food blogger.  I followed her instructions to the letter.  Because let's face it, I was scared.

I mean, look at this thing.  It's frightening.  Food porn.  And not in a good way.  What is that hanging all between it's chicken legs?  And there is no way this chicken did pilates or Buns of Steel. Just sayin'.

I did what Jessica said, I removed all that grossness that was inside.  Some of those parts that my mom fried up for my Dad to eat.  Or she chopped up and put in gravy and stuffing.  Blechhh.  Sorry mom, but that's just nasty.  Moving on.  I washed the bird.  I liberally salt & peppered it (sa, sa, sa, salt & peppa's here...music flashback. Sorry. That song will be in my head for the rest of the day.)  I rubbed it down in olive oil.  I threw on some dried rosemary too.

I stuck it in my roasting pan.  I didn't have any onion to put in the bottom of the pan so I threw some celery in there.  Plopped the chicken on top.  Threw it in the 425 degree oven, and baked for 90 minutes.  It's literally that easy.

It could have cooked a little longer to get the outside just a tad darker, but as it was, it was crispy and the inside was seriously tender and juicy.  (I used my meat thermometer just to make sure it was done.  I have a phobia of food born illnesses.  That's what microbiology does for you.)  The chicken had a great flavor, and everyone was quite impressed with my cooking skillz.  By everyone I mean my husband.  This meal got a "this is actually pretty good honey".  Bite me.  (All my stuff is good.  It's not my fault y'all won't eat tofu.  Or spinach.  Okay, all my stuff is not good.  I'll admit I experiment quite a bit, so the family is a little reluctant to get to excited when I place something "new" in front of them.)

But seriously, this was good.  And easy.  It does make a little mess in the oven.  Grease splatters a bit.  Not bad enough to cause any major issues, but enough that I really need to clean the oven.  And of course, by cleaning the oven I mean turning the oven on to 'self cleaning' ;)  Gotta love modern technology.

I hope everyone has a great week.  It's the last few days of school for my kiddos, so we have lots going on.  Today is the end-of-year party for Miss Two.  They have the local fire department come out with the fire truck and spray the kids with the water hoses.  It makes quite a sprinkler.  Does your community do anything like that?  It seemed a little strange the first year we lived here, but the kids love it, and it's really nice of the volunteer firemen to take time to do this for the kids.   Number One has awards day today as well.  So I'll be jumping from school to school.  First, I have boot camp at the Y again.  Yikes.  I'm a glutton for punishment.  Or just a glutton, which is why I need to lose weight!

I'm linking up today with Homemaker on a Dime, Delightfully Dowling, Skip to my Lou, The Girl Creative, Making the World Cuter, Monday Mingle