Chicken Roast

Antoine's childhood memories of Sunday lunch. Memories of negotiating on the table to get the biggest piece of breast or to be allowed to dip a piece of bread into the chicken sauce. Good times !

The secret for a succulent whole roasted chicken ? A free-range, organic grain fed, with no antibiotic chicken. We noticed that the free-range chickens with no Antibiotics are leaner than your regular chicken. For a few bucks more you get cleaner healthier meat, much less fat than your regular chicken and the taste is amazing. We highly encourage you to get a free-range, organic grain fed, with no antibiotic chicken as you move towards a Lean Lifestyle.

The ingredients are given for 6 medium servings.

INGREDIENTS

1 whole chicken of 6lbs
20 small potatoes
10 cloves of garlic unpeeled
1 clove of garlic peeler
4 slices of "baguette" bread
Fresh rosemary leaves from 2 sprigs
Chopped rosemary leaves from 2 sprigs
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Cayenne pepper

DIRECTIONS

Clean your chicken under cold water, scrubbing peeling skin, removing remaining feathers or duvets if any. Dry your chicken with paper towel and put it in the fridge. Usually, giblets or the neck are stuffed inside the chicken. Remove them and wash/dry them too. This step can be done anytime and preferably just after having bought your chicken so that it waits to be cooked all cleaned and ready.
One hour before putting your chicken into the oven, take it out of the fridge so that it can get to room temperature.
Pre-heat your oven at 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
Clean the potatoes (rubbing them thoroughly under cold water) and cut them in bite size pieces. Assemble 10 garlic cloves without peeling them. Their skin will protect them from burning during the roast.
In a roasting pan, drizzle some olive oil to the bottom. Add your potatoes, the garlic cloves. On top, add the rosemary leaves from two sprigs along with salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. Toss the whole so that each potato and garlic clove get coated in the spicy mix. Position the potatoes and garlic cloves on the sides of the roasting pan, leaving the surface at the center free. Make sure the potatoes are not on top of each other as it would prevent them from roasting perfectly.
Peel the onions and slice them in thick slices. Position the slices in the free surface of the roasted pan. The onions will act as the bed of the chicken and suck in all the nice juices of it.
Position your chicken in the roasting pan. Drizzle some olive oil on it. Sprinkle salt, pepper, herbs of Provence and chopped rosemary leaves. Rub the chicken everywhere to ensure it is completely coated in the mix.
Rub some garlic on the bread slices. Stuff the bread slices inside the chicken.
If you have a meat thermometer that goes in the oven, set it up by having it measure the temperature in the meatiest part of the chicken thigh.
Bake the whole in the oven either for 20 minutes per pound (2 hours in our case) or when your thermometer reaches 170 degrees Fahrenheit. Take out of the oven and leave it to rest for 30 minutes before carving it. Collect the juices in a saucer and use only the dark part in the bottom (the clear part is made of the fats and olive oil).