My dad gave me a whole chicken out of his freezer and I thought to myself… what am I going to do with this darn chicken?  I’ve only made a whole chicken once before and I boiled it and used the chicken for soup (which is what I’m going to do with the leftovers of this chicken!).

So, we’ll roast this chicken, but seriously… how?  I Googled roasted chicken and saw that really, it’s a lot simpler than I thought.  So, I looked in my cabinet and came up with this blend.  It turned out so good.  The skin was crisp and full of flavor and the chicken…. oh so juicy and moist.  Seriously, it was probably one of the best chickens I’ve ever made!!!!

1 fresh whole chicken

For the cavity
1/2 apple
1/2 onion
4 large cloves garlic

Rub
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp rosemary
2 tbsp oregano
2 tbsp basil
1-2 tbsp coarse fresh ground sea salt
1-2 tbsp coarse fresh ground pepper

1. Preheat oven to 450 F degrees.
2. Prep chicken by giving it a good rinse under cold water. Remove any of the “extras” from the inside cavity.
3. Cut 1/2 the apple and 1/2 the onion into 3 pieces. Cut the 4 cloves of garlic in half, you can leave the shells on the garlic because you’ll be removing them before serving.
4. Shove the apples, onions, and garlic into the cavity of the chicken.
5. Lay the chicken on a baking sheet.
6. In a bowl, mix together the rest of the ingredients. (NOTE: I didn’t measure anything when I made this rub. I just used the spices I had in my kitchen (you can use whatever you have, you don’t have to use exactly what I used) and eye balled what looked to be right for the amount of honey and olive oil. You want to be able to have a runny paste like consistency to rub on the chicken.)
7. Rub this mixture all over the outside of the chicken. Make sure to flip it over and rub on the underside too. If any of it falls off the chicken onto the pan, just scoop it up and put it on the chicken.  You can see in the pic below that I failed to scoop up the rub that fell on the pan, well it burned onto the pan and was a pain to scrape off.
8. 
9. Place chicken in the center of your oven and roast for 45 minutes uncovered. After 45 minutes, your chicken should have a nice dark brown crust. Cover the chicken with foil and roast for another 30 minutes.
10. Remove roast from oven and let rest for 10-15 minutes before carving.

Note: I served my chicken with herb roasted potatoes that I added to the roasting pan at the same time I covered it. I left them in the oven for the 15 minutes my chicken was roasting and were perfect by the time I served dinner. Also made steamed veggies. I didn’t take a picture of the final meal though, I was too busy eating it!

Herb Roasted Potatoes
6 small russet potatoes (you can use whatever kind you want), quartered
salt/pepper to taste
extra virgin olive oil
spices

1. Quarter the potatoes and drizzle with olive oil.
2. Salt/pepper to taste.
3. Sprinkle whatever spices you have on hand. I like rosemary and basil.
4. Roast on a baking sheet at 450 F degrees for 30-45 minutes or until crispy and brown.