Roasted Lemon Rosemary Chicken

Roasted Chicken is a simple meal to make and very versatile. If you want to change the herbs or omit the lemon, you can. It will still turn out delicious. I chose to use lemon and rosemary because that is what sounded good. But you can use sage, thyme, herbs de Provence, or just plan salt and pepper. Also what is great is that after you've eaten your meal, the chicken bones can be used to make homemade chicken stock. Buying the whole chicken is usually less expensive than buying the chicken already cut up into sections and it can accommodate the dark and the white meal eaters in your family. 

I used Petaluma's Rocky Whole Chicken. It is free range, contains no antibiotics, fed a vegetarian diet and is humanely treated. If you are Clean Eating, remove the skin and focus on eating mostly white meat. 

Roasted Lemon Rosemary Chicken

Cook Time: 2 hours @ 350 degrees

Prep Time: 5 mins

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

• 4 lb Free Range Whole Chicken (remove innards and giblets, if it contains it)
• Juice from 1/2 an organic lemon
• 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary (minced)
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup organic low sodium chicken stock

Preheat oven to 350. Place the chicken in a roasting pan or an oven proof dish. 

Squeeze the 1/2 lemon over the top of the chicken. Sprinkle the rosemary, salt and pepper onto the chicken and rub into skin well (make sure to do this all over the chicken). Pour about 1/4 cup of chicken stock into the bottom of the pan (it help keep the chicken from drying out). 

Then place the pan into the oven and let it cook for about 2 hours or until the internal temperature reads 165 degrees.  If you have a larger or smaller chicken adjust the time by 15-20 minutes per pound.

Once you remove it from the oven, let the chicken rest for about 5-10 mins before carving. 

Nutritional Info per Serving (including skin):

Calories: 330 ; Fat: 17g ; Carbohydrate: 1g ; Fiber: 0g ; Sugar: 0g ; Protein: 40g

Nutritional Info Per Serving (without skin):

Calories: 215 ; Fat: 4g ; Carbohydrate: 1g ; Fiber: 0g ; Sugar: 0g ; Protein: 36g