Organic roasted chicken recipe

I give full credit for this recipe to my pals at Allrecipes.com - where I go whenever I need a good recipe. I really like the site because it not only gives you a recipe, it gives you a rating (out of five stars) and all kinds of comments from folks who changed the temperature, tweaked this, or added that. It's great to look through how everyone did with it, and pick what you want to change.

Here's a pic of my latest chicken and veg:

So here's how it's done:

First thing's first- get yourself a nice little organic chicken. This one was about $17 and ended up feeding four adults and two kids. Not bad, if I do say so myself!!

Ingredients

2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon white sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 (4 pound) whole chicken
5 cloves garlic, crushed

Directions


In a bowl, mix the salt, sugar (I used coconut sugar), cloves, allspice, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Rub the chicken with the mixture. Cover chicken, and place in the refrigerator for 24 hours. You might be best to get out a calculator and make this rub times a zillion because you'll likely want to do this again and again and it will save you time later. I don't always leave it 24hrs either. Whatever you can manage- even if it's only an hour or two- will be great.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F (260 degrees C).

Stuff the chicken cavity with the garlic. Place the chicken, breast side down, on a rack* in a roasting pan. Put about 1 1/2 to 2cups water in the bottom.


Roast 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce heat to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C), and continue roasting 15 minutes. Baste chicken with pan drippings, reduce heat to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C), and continue roasting 30 minutes, to an internal temperature of 180 degrees F (85 degrees C). Let stand 20 minutes before serving.
 
You will also notice that I made this a one-pot meal: *I peel big carrots and use them to make a "rack" on which to suspend the chicken. Then I cover the bottom with chopped potatoes and brussel sprouts. If you don't like brussel sprouts, you WILL once you taste them bathed in the chicken juice and the rub. YUM. So put the veg in the pan, add a cup or two of water (it'll evaporate) and then splash some oil over the veggies. Don't forget to baste the veg when you baste the bird.
 
This recipe is awesome and the bird is SO MOIST- cooking a chicken at 350 degrees only dries it out. You've got to cook it high and fast. Brilliant.

Organic roasted chicken recipe