Perfect Roast Chicken

I roast a chicken every week, sometimes two chickens in a week. It’s easy, relatively inexpensive and it lasts. You can have roast chicken one night, Asian lettuce wraps the next and then a soup from the broth.   It’s a wonder that I’ve never posted the recipe before given that we make it every single week.

The key–as with every dish–is to purchase high quality ingredients.   It’s critical to purchase pastured poultry when possible.   Chickens are not natural vegetarians and shouldn’t subsist on a diet of corn and soy as it reduces the overall nutrient content of their meat and fat; rather, they should spend their time pecking at insects, grubs and sprouts in fields where they are allowed to be truly free-range.

To roast a perfect chicken you’ll need:

• 1 Pasture- or Meadow-raised Chicken (Preferably Fresh)
• 1 Bunch Organic Parsley
• 1 Bunch Organic Rosemary
• 1 Bunch Organic Chives
• 1 Bulb Organic Garlic
• 1/4 Cup Ghee from Grass-fed Cows
• Coarse Celtic Sea Salt
• Fresh Ground Organic Pepper

1. Take half of each bunch of fresh herbs and chop them finely–discarding the tough stems when you can.     Additionally, divide the bulb of garlic in half.   Reserve half of the cloves for stuffing inside the chicken, then peel and slice the other half of the cloves as thinly as possible.
2. Mix the herbs and garlic thoroughly with the ghee.   Just as it’s critical to purchase pasture-fed poultry, it is also critical to purchase ghee from grass-fed cows as it is rich in nutrients–particularly vitamin A.
3. Loosen the skin of the chicken breast by running a butter knife between the skin and the flesh of the bird.   When the skin is sufficiently loose, spread some of the herb mixture between the skin of the breast and its flesh.   Now, take the remaining mixture and spread it on the skin of the bird–everywhere you can.
4. Stuff the remaining garlic inside the cavity of the chicken, and then sprinkle the bird with coarse celtic sea salt.   Be liberally generous with the salt.
5. Next, stick the chicken in the oven at 300 º F for two hours, then raise the temperature to 425 º and continue to roast the chicken for 20 minutes or until the skin is golden brown.
6. Garnish the chicken with the remaining fresh herbs and serve it in all its yumminess.   You should, of course, truss the bird which I am usually too lazy to do.   So … I guess it’s just almost perfect.