Wait for a chilly day so the oven will keep your kitchen warm.
Ingredients:
–oil, salt, pepper, minced or pressed garlic
–a raw chicken
–an onion
–rosemary and/or sage, fresh
Also, a meat thermometer helps a lot.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
In a small bowl, mix a couple tablespoons grapeseed oil or low-grade olive oil with crushed sea salt, a pinch of cayenne, freshly-ground black pepper, and a clove or two of crushed garlic.
Remove giblets from interior of chicken, rinse chicken, pat dry. If desired or necessary, trim excess fat from chicken.
Fill interior of chicken with chunks of peeled onion, peeled cloves of garlic, and fresh sage leaves (or rosemary. Or a mix of the two.) Burrow your fingers under the skin of the breast and smear the meat with some of the oil/salt/pepper/garlic mixture, then shove more fresh sage leaves under the skin. Rub exterior of chicken all over with remainder of oil/seasoning mixture.
Close up cavity of chicken with small skewers or cooking string. Stick the spike of a meat thermometer into thickest part of chicken’s thigh. Put in baking dish–make sure the size is close, since an oversize dish means more juices will boil away. I usually use an iron Dutch Oven with the top left off, and sit the chicken on a little round meat rack. A spiral made of rolled-up aluminium foil also works.
Bake the chiken at 325 degrees F for approximately 20 minutes per pound of meat, but check on it about an hour from your estimated done time. The thermometer in the thigh should read 170 degrees F when it’s done.
Remove chicken from oven. Allow to sit for about 30 minutes before slicing. The oil mix gives a very crispy, flavorful skin.
Poor chicken. Lucky you.
