Dear Readers, Lest you think that I, Food on Fifth, sit around my kitchen all day eating tartlets, upside down cakes, spoon breads and pound cakes I am branching out this week. As it is Spring here in Nashville in the best and most perfect sense of the word I am sharing our dinner from a week or so ago, a juicy citrus & thyme roasted chicken. A fresh, bright flavor due to all the citrus, very crispy skin, lots of juice in the bottom of the pan served alongside a freshly baked baguette from flour.sugar.eggs. for soppin’ & a bowl of lightly dressed arugula….an easy Spring dinner…oh my, so good.
Here is what you will need:
a good quality, Plump Roasting Chicken (I got this beauty from my local CSA, “Fresh Harvest”. This is just the best as you can choose what you want each week, order & pay online and the variety of choices is just astounding…meats, vegs, flowers, cheeses, bread, eggs…all organically grown from farms in the Nashville, TN area.)
Whole Fresh Citrus – mandarins, oranges, clementines, lemons, grapefruit, whatever you have + 1/2 cup Orange Juice & 1/4 cup Lemon Juice freshly squeezed
Fresh Thyme Leaves (I have a Lemon Thyme in my garden so I used that.)
A few whole, peeled roasted garlic cloves & shallots
Olive oil, salt & freshly ground pepper
Here is what to do:
1. Wash chicken inside and out under cool running water. Pat dry. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Drizzle some olive oil in the bottom of a roasting pan. Cut citrus into halves & chunks. Slice one lemon thinly.
2. Place the chicken in the roasting pan. Using your fingers (gloves if you prefer) gently loosen the skin over the breast of the chicken & insert a few lemon slices & thyme sprigs under the skin. Stuff the inside of the chicken with the shallots, a few sprigs of thyme & chunks of citrus. Tie the legs together using kitchen twine. Rub the outside of the skin with olive oil & sprinkle with salt & pepper & fresh thyme leaves.
3. Place all the citrus pieces around the chicken along with the garlic cloves & thyme sprigs. Pour the orange juice & lemon juice into the pan. Roast for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until a meat thermometer inserted into the thicken part of the breast reads 165 degrees. I basted the chicken every so often with the pan juices.
Serve pieces of chicken with some of the pan juices & roasted citrus, a crusty baguette for soppin’ and a simple arugula salad.
Oh My, Hello Spring!
Beautiful! And SO perfect for spring!
Thanks Sarah, hope you are well and thanks for checking out Food on Fifth. See you soon.
It’s amazing! I bet the chicken tastes and smell great… I’ll try it! beautiful photos, as usual!
So nice to hear from you again la petite casserole. Your blog is amazing and I am so happy that you stopped by to visit Food on Fifth. Happy April.
So elegant. Would love to serve this for guests. Hello spring!
You know this is very elegant, yet rustic and would be good for a mid-week dinner, Sunday Supper or for guests.
This looks amazing!! Great photos!
Frankie, thanks so much for stopping by. I just checked out your beautiful blog as well. See you soon I hope.
Wonderful, I can smell it already! Just a new blogger myself, and recipes will definitely be one of my categories too. Love the photos, picture perfect!
Loretta, thanks for coming by Food on Fifth and welcome to blogging. It is a wonderful creative outlet. Thanks for your nice comment.
Thanks for welcoming me to the world of blogging Teresa, better late than never right? So I do have a question, when are blood oranges in season? I’ve tried a similar dish, and I have to say the blood oranges really make those pictures pop right out!
Loretta, Blood Oranges are in season from around January through late March. I had the ones I used for my roasted chicken left over in the fridge! They were some I purchased in early March and had not used these last two. They were still good and juicy!
Gorgeous! Wonderful photography. I can just imagine how good it must taste!
Thank you so much Serena for the compliment. It is always nice to hear folks appreciate my work. This is just delicious.
Yum! Looks fantastic. Can’t wait to try this.
Jenny, thanks so much for coming by to see what’s up on Food on Fifth.
Teresa this chicken dish looks like something that I could do… It really looks scrumptious… You know that I am a chicken nut……
Well I did not know that you like chicken so much…learn something new every day! This is just so easy and simple and you could do this in a flash…just get an extra baguette for Lizzie to do some soppin” although she would not eat the chicken…the soppin’ she would love.
Thanks. A wonderful recipe. Will be great when get to Maine and have organic Tide Mill chickens
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Oh how wonderful to hear from you Bill. Have not seen you around the ‘hood recently. What a fantastic Spring we are having here in Historic Germantown! Give my regards to sweet April and thanks for stopping by. BTW this chicken is just fantastic and will be just the thing to make with your organic Tide Mill Chicken.
Roast chicken might be one of the most delightful foods in the world- and yours looks gorgeous! I like the addition of the oranges…it adds such a nice vibrant color to the dish. Great recipe.
Thank you Sarah, this is one of my favorite made-up roasted chickens that I have done. See you soon.
I can almost smell it!
Thank you Sarah, this is one of my favorite made-up roasted chickens that I have done. See you soon.
Wow, this looks absolutely mouthwatering! So delicious, I can only imagine the fresh taste with all the fruit. The pictures are great. Thank you for sharing this!
Hello and welcome to Food on Fifth Mademoiselle…such nice words and I thank you. Just visited your site and just love what you are writing about. I am already looking forward to your next post.
Likewise! And thanks for stopping by…
I cannot wait to try this recipe – looks so yummy!
Dawn how great to see you over here at Food on Fifth. Thanks for visiting. This is the easiest chicken ever and is just wonderful if I do say so myself. Buy a good bread for soppin”. Hope to see you soon. T
I can’t wait to try this and some of your other recipes!
Thanks for stopping by Hostess at Heart. Let me know how your chicken turns out if you make it. Always interested in how my recipes translate to others. Happy End of April!
Love the slices of citrus under the crispy skin–Dee-Lish.
Nance this is the month for lemony citrus chicken! Your blog and my testing for Relish and all the citrus in my crisper and an organic chicken from Tally made this recipe a natural.
Looks so good!
Reblogged this on sheilamaylaurio and commented:
Yummy 🙂