Ingredients

The following ingredients have 4 Servings
  • a Whole Chicken
  • 1 tablespoon Butter, at room temperature
  • Sea Salt
  • Pepper
  • 2 Lemons
  • 2 Oranges
  • 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
  • 1 tablespoon Oregano
  • 1 tablespoon Chopped Basil
  • 3 cloves of loosely chopped Garlic
  • 1 clove of finely chopped Garlic
  • 1 cup White Wine
  • about 2 cups Chicken Stock or Broth

Instruction

  • Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Remove the giblets from the cavity and throw away. Remove any other packing materials. Rise the chicken in cold water - both outside and inside the cavity. Pat dry with a paper towel. Generously season the inside of the chicken with salt and pepper. Slice one lemon and one orange in half, and squeeze the juice from one half of the lemon and one half of the orange. Remove any seeds and pour into a small bowl. Stir in the olive oil, finely chopped garlic, half of the oregano, and half of the basil. You will use this mixture to baste the chicken. Loosely chop the remaining lemon and orange. Stuff the chicken with the loosely chopped garlic and the chopped lemon and orange. Tie the chicken legs together to help hold the citrus in place. You can use butchers twine, or you can fold up aluminum foil and wrap it around the legs and twist together. Place the chicken breast side up on a roasting pan. In a small bowl, stir together the butter and the remaining oregano and basil. Rub the seasoned butter all over the chicken and then sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper. Brush some of the lemon and orange juice mixture over the chicken. Once the oven is preheated, place the chicken on a middle rack. As the chicken roasts, you want to make sure that the pan drippings do not burn. Add chicken broth and/or white wine to the bottom of the pan as necessary to prevent the drippings from burning. Baste the chicken every 20 minutes with the lemon and orange juice mixture. The generally accepted cooking time for roast chicken is 20 minutes per pound. Julia Child used the formula 45 minutes plus 7 minutes per pound of meat. Regardless of the formula, you decide to use, you need to cook the chicken until a meat thermometer placed in the inner thigh reads 170 degrees. I like to use an in-oven thermometer that measures the temperature of the chicken while it cooks. Remove the chicken from the roasting pan and tent with foil. Use the drippings from the pan to make gravy. Add any leftover basting mixture to the gravy. Let the chicken sit for a total of 10 minutes before carving.