Tracy has a chicken - HELP!

Inspired by: Tracy Riekenberg

I love it when someone posts a request for recipe help and a bunch of people offer suggestions. Of course, I can never find the threads when I have the same recipe conundrum so I am going to try to start to capture them.

Just in case you missed it, here's the post that inspired a flood of chicken recipes:

Below I've captured the recipes that were posted in the comments. If you have another suggestion send it my way! We'll never be at a loss of how to use up a whole chicken again!

Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic

contributed by: Kate Lockwood
(you can also bake this in the oven, but we do the crock pot method at our house on week nights)

Ingredients:

• Vegetable cooking spray
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted
• 40 unpeeled garlic cloves
• 6 fresh thyme sprigs (I just use a few pinches of dried)
• 1 fresh rosemary sprig (sometimes I throw in some dried rosemary too - if I'm feeling fancy)
• 1 (4-lb.) whole chicken 
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper 
• 1/2 cup unsalted chicken stock 
• 1/4 cup dry white wine 
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour (optional - for gravy)

Instructions

1.  Line bottom and long sides of a 6-qt. oval slow cooker with 1 piece of aluminum foil, allowing 2 inches to extend over sides. Lightly grease foil with cooking spray. Pour 3 Tbsp. melted butter in slow cooker; sprinkle garlic over butter. Add thyme and rosemary sprigs. Place chicken, breast-side up, on herbs. Brush 1 Tbsp. melted butter over chicken; sprinkle with desired amount of salt and pepper. Add chicken stock and wine to slow cooker. Cover and cook on LOW 8 hours.
2. Transfer chicken from slow cooker to a serving platter, using foil sides as handles. Transfer garlic cloves from slow cooker to platter, using a slotted spoon. 

---- The two steps below make a gravy to serve with the chicken. Who has time for that? Not me. We skip these steps ---

1. Pour cooking liquid through a cheesecloth-lined wire-mesh strainer into a measuring cup; discard solids.
2. Pour 1 cup cooking liquid into a small saucepan (reserve remaining cooking liquid for another use, such as rice or couscous); whisk in flour. Bring to a boil, and cook, whisking constantly, 2 minutes or until thickened. Stir in chopped thyme. Serve with chicken.

We serve this with baguette or other crusty bread and salad. You smoosh the garlic cloves out onto the bread and spread them. DELICIOUS!

Engagement Chicken

contributed by: Maggie Kelly
Original recipe: Glamour Magazine

Note: it worked! apparently 100% of the Maggies I know who fed this chicken to their boyfriends ended up getting engaged. 

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken (approximately 4 pounds)
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice, plus 3 whole lemons—including 1 sliced for garnish
• 1 tablespoon kosher or coarse sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• Fresh herbs for garnish (4 rosemary sprigs, 4 sage sprigs, 8 thyme sprigs, and 1 bunch flat-leaf parsley)

Instructions

1. Position an oven rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat the oven to 400°F. Remove the giblets from the chicken, wash the chicken inside and out with cold water, then let the chicken drain, cavity down, in a colander for 2 minutes.
2. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Place the chicken breast-side down in a medium roasting pan fi tted with a rack and pour the lemon juice all over the chicken, both inside and out. Season the chicken all over with salt and pepper inside and out.
3. Prick 2 whole lemons three times each in three different places with a fork and place them deep inside the cavity. Chicken cavity size may vary, so if one lemon is partly sticking out, that’s fine. (Tip: If the lemons are stiff, roll them on the countertop with your palm before pricking to get the juices flowing.)
4.  Put the chicken in the oven, lower the oven temperature to 350°F, and roast, uncovered, for 15 minutes.
5. Remove the roasting pan from the oven. Using tongs or two wooden spoons, turn the chicken breast- side up. Insert a meat thermometer in the thigh, and return the chicken to the oven and roast for about 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes or until the meat thermometer reads 180°F and the juices run clear when the thigh is pricked with a fork. Continue roasting if necessary. Keep in mind that cooking times in different ovens vary; roasting a chicken at 350°F takes approximately 18-20 minutes per pound, plus an additional 15 minutes.
6. Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes before carving. And here’s the secret: Pour the juices from the roasting pan on top of the sliced chicken— this is the “marry me juice.” Garnish with fresh herbs and lemon slices.

Perfect Roast Chicken

contributed by: Juli Pelletier
original recipe: Ina Garten

Ingredients:

• (5 to 6 pound) roasting chicken
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 large bunch fresh thyme, plus 20 sprigs
• 1 lemon, halved
• 1 head garlic, cut in half crosswise
• 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, melted
• 1 large yellow onion, thickly sliced
• 4 carrots cut into 2-inch chunks
• 1 bulb of fennel, tops removed, and cut into wedges
• Olive oil

Instructions: 

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Remove the chicken giblets. Rinse the chicken inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pin feathers and pat the outside dry. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the bunch of thyme, both halves of lemon, and all the garlic. Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken. Place the onions, carrots, and fennel in a roasting pan. Toss with salt, pepper, 20 sprigs of thyme, and olive oil. Spread around the bottom of the roasting pan and place the chicken on top.
3. Roast the chicken for 1 1/2 hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Remove the chicken and vegetables to a platter and cover with aluminum foil for about 20 minutes. Slice the chicken onto a platter and serve it with the vegetables.