Sunday, October 10, 2010

Practice Round: Chicken 101

This year I'm doing the family Thanksgiving Dinner and there is a little pressure. I have never cooked a whole turkey before so I thought I would practice on a chicken.  I made a roast chicken and I'm proud to say it was moist and scrumptious.
I found the recipe in a Cooking Light cookbook and it was super easy and here's how you do it.


Roasted Chicken with Lemons and Thyme

Ingredients
1- 6 lb. roasting chicken
2 tsp. paprika
2 tbsp. fresh thyme, chopped, divided
1 tsp. salt, divided
1 tsp. freshly ground pepper divided
2 lemons

Cooking Spray
1 tsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. all purpose flour
1/2 c. dry white wine
1 c. fat-free, less sodium chicken broth
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2 tsp. sugar

preheat oven to 425 degrees

Remove and discard giblets and neck from chicken, trim excess fat. Loosen skin from breast and drumsticks.

Combine paprika, 1 tbsp. thyme, 1/2 tsp. salt,and 1/4 tsp. pepper- rub under skin.
Thinly slice one lemon and slip slices under loosened skin. Cut remaining lemon into quarters and put into cavity with remaining tbsp. thyme.

Place chicken on roasting pan coated with cooking spray, brush olive oil over chicken cover with aluminum foil. bake for 30 minutes. Then uncover and bake another 50 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 165 degrees--meat thermometer goes into thigh of bird (see above picture).

Let chicken rest for at least 15 minutes before carving.

Take pan with left over drippings and place it over a stovetop and heat up with flour and wine.
Whisk so lumps are removed. Mix together with broth, juice, sugar and remaining 3/4 tsp. pepper and 1/2 tsp. salt stirring until thickened and smooth.

8 servings of 3 oz. chicken and 3 tbsp. gravy = 4 weight watcher points.