Lemon Rosemary Balsamic Roasted Chicken / Turkey Cooking Guidelines

Howdy,

Today I have for you the roasted chicken recipe that I made Saturday evening.  For Thanksgiving this year my Husband and I decided on making roasted chicken because we figured we didn’t need a big turkey since it is going to be just the two of us.  Then as I told you the other day, my Husband said his work is giving us a turkey for Thanksgiving.  So I figured I better make my chicken, since I was home and I had time.

The photos are not the prettiest because my Husband started to cut into the chicken before I could take a picture of it! Sigh…  He does not have any patience.  He kept saying hurry up dinner is getting cold.  He also didn’t do the greatest job of cutting the chicken, so I had to piece it back together myself.  So forgive me for not having a picture of the bird  out of the oven, but I confirm it looked like a roasted chicken.  🙂

The marinade I used for the chicken was amazing and I am sharing this recipe with you today in case you may want a different spin to your Thanksgiving Turkey.  It’s a wonderful rosemary and lemon marinade that made the chicken so moist and gave it unbelievable flavor!  I have to say it was probably one of the best tasting roasted chickens I have ever had.  The marinade is made with lemon, olive oil, garlic, balsamic vinegar and Dijon mustard.  Yum!  I know this marinade would also be great on boneless skinless chicken too.  Just marinate it for about 30 minutes and bake or grill your chicken.

I didn’t calculate the calories on this chicken dish because it’s to hard to calculate for a roasted chicken.  It all depends on what meat you like dark or white and if you take the skin or not.  I’ll admit the skin was pretty good on this chicken!

Lemon Rosemary Balsamic Roasted Chicken

Prep time:  5 mins

Cook time:  1 hour 30 mins

Total time:  1 hour 35 mins

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Savory and moist roasted chicken with a lemon rosemary balsamic glaze.

Ingredients

• 1 (5 to 6 pound) roasting chicken
• 1 tbsp. garlic, minced
• ½ tsp. kosher salt
• ¼ cup dijon mustard
• 2 tbsp packed light brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
• 2 tsp. packed finely grated lemon zest
• 2 tsp. chopped fresh rosemary

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
2. To make marinade: In a medium bowl combine garlic, salt mustard, brown sugar, vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, and chopped rosemary and whisk until thoroughly combined; set a side.
3. Remove the chicken giblets. Rinse the chicken inside and out, and pat the outside dry. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken. Brush the outside of the chicken marinade. Add ¼ cup of water to bottom of roasting pan (when baking if you run out of juice at the bottom of pan add a little more water). Place in the oven.
4. Roast the chicken for 1½ hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Remove the chicken to a platter and cover with aluminum foil for about 20 minutes. Slice the chicken onto a platter and serve.

Notes

Recipe adapted from Fine Cooking

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Lets talk Turkey for a minute.  Even though I just made a chicken, I wanted to share with you some turkey preparation to help you on Thanksgiving.

Thawing Time:

This is the worse part for me.  One year I thought my turkey was completely defrosted and guess what, it wasn’t! It took 12 hours to cook my turkey!  Lucky I started at 6am.  Here is are two charts to help with turkey defrosting time.

If you need to thaw the turkey more quickly, you may thaw the bird in COLD water, in the original wrapping. The cold water must be changed every 30 minutes. Allow approximately 30 minutes per pound using this method.

Cooking Time:

Now cooking turkey!  Here is a chart of the roasting time for your turkey.  Cook until temperature reaches 170 degrees F in the breast and 180 degrees F in the thigh. Cooking times are for planning purposes only – always use a meat thermometer to determine doneness.

Stuffing your Turkey:

It is recommended that stuffing be prepared and stuffed into the turkey immediately before it’s placed in the oven for cooking. When making stuffing ahead of time, wet and dry ingredients should be refrigerated separately and combined right before stuffing the turkey. Turkeys should be stuffed loosely, with about 3/4 cup of stuffing per pound of turkey.

Use these two simple steps for determining when a stuffed roasted turkey is done cooking and safe to eat:

1. Insert a meat thermometer into the deepest portion of the thigh, not touching bone, and allow it to come to temperature for an accurate reading. Cook the turkey until the temperature when measured in the thigh reaches 180 degrees F. (When cooking a stuffed turkey breast, the temperature measured in the breast should be 170 degrees F.)
2. Move the thermometer to the center of the stuffing. Once the stuffing has reached 160 to 165 degrees F, the turkey should be removed from the oven and allowed to “rest” for 20 minutes. This makes carving easier and allows stuffing temperature to continue to rise to at least 165 degrees F.

If the turkey comes with a pop-up timer, a meat thermometer should still be used to check the temperature in the stuffing.

By following these two steps, you and your family can continue the tradition of preparing a delicious stuffed turkey without sacrificing quality or safety.

I hope I was able to help you out a little!  I will post this information into my kitchen tip.  I received this information from the National Turkey Federation.

Have a great day!

Toodles,

Jennifer

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