A Whole Chicken Dinner to Make the Whole Family Happy

Last night we had one of my favorite dinners, Whole Roast Chicken. I got the recipe from Nom Nom Paleo (one of my favorite sites for Paleo recipes). I have made it before (translation: sent hubby the directions to make it), but I’ve never used a brined whole chicken until now (the link to the recipe at Nom Nom tells you how to brine your own, but if you can’t get a brined chicken, I would just use a regular whole organic chicken – it’s still a really good dinner, especially if you are lazy busy like me). We also used a little more ghee than usual. So, I don’t know if it was that or the brined chicken, but the result was fabulous. Seriously, best skin ev-ah!

This recipe is grain-free , dairy-free, and corn-free and PALEO and GAPS legal. Here is the recipe, only super-slightly modified.

Ingredients

• 1 whole organic brined chicken
• 4 leeks, trimmed and sliced
• 4 carrots, sliced
• 8 oz. baby bella (cremini) mushrooms, sliced
• 6 TBS ghee
• Splash of white balsamic vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Pat the chicken with a paper towel.
3. Place the chicken breast-side down on a cutting board and use kitchen scissors to cut away the back bone and cut off any skin and fat that you don’t want.
4. Flip over the chicken and press down to flatten it and cut about ½ inch through the cartilage on the breast bone.
5. Thoroughly clean and chop all veggies.
6. Spread the veggies out on a cooking tray, season with salt and pepper, and spread about 2TBS of the ghee over them.
7. Place the chicken breast-side up on top of the veggies.
8. Rub the remaining ghee all over the chicken.
9. Cook for approximately 45 minutes.
10. Remove chicken from veggies and let sit for 15 minutes.
11. Toss veggies with balsamic vinegar.
12. Carve chicken and enjoy!

If you feel uncertain about any part of the process, Nom Nom Paleo has detailed pictures of the whole process, but it seriously couldn’t be easier. All the kids actually ate it, including the veggies (except C2 still won’t eat mushrooms). It fed my family of 5 with just enough leftovers for Christopher’s lunch the next day. And I threw the chicken bones in a pot with some salt and pepper and water, where it will sit there for the next 2 days becoming a super nutritious bone broth (just wait for the water to boil and then cover and simmer on super-low heat). I will cook with the broth for the rest of the week, as well as consuming about a cup a day (which is amazing for immunity, skin, and digestive health!).