Roasted Chicken
Roasted chicken is a great menu item for cooking at home or while camping. A large bird can easily feed a group of 6-8 when camping. At home you can serve it up one night and, depending upon the size of your family, have enough leftovers for multiple meals. This is a great way to cook a chicken outdoors in the summer when it is too hot indoors to use your oven. Don't forget to use the bones and skin to make chicken stock. Roasted chicken is a great tasting, economical choice that can go a long way. What better way to have Dutch oven chicken than roasted? Give it a try and enjoy!
Ingredients:
1 Roasting chicken
1 Medium onion
2 Celery ribs
2 Carrots
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 Tbs. Olive oil
2 tbs butter
1 small shallot, diced
½ cup white wine
1 tsp tarragon
2 tsp Dijon mustard
Directions:
Place a trivet into your 12" or 14" Dutch oven. Remove the bag containing the gizzard, heart, liver and neck from the inside of the chicken, discard or reserve for making stock. Thoroughly rinse the chicken inside and out then pat it dry. Quarter the onion and cut the carrots and celery in half then stuff the chicken with the vegetables. Truss the chicken using butcher's string.
After trussing the bird, place it on the trivet in your Dutch oven. Rub the chicken with olive oil then season to taste with Kosher salt and ground black pepper. If cooking indoors, place your uncovered Dutch oven onto the bottom rack position of your kitchen oven which has been preheated to 450° and set for broil. After 20 minutes cover the dutch oven, change oven setting to bake and reduce the heat to 350 degrees. If cooking outdoors, place your covered Dutch oven over 15 charcoal briquettes and cover the lid with a generous amount of charcoal. You want a lot of top heat in order to brown the bird. After 20 minutes remove all but 15 charcoal briquettes from the lid of the Dutch oven.
Bake the chicken until the bird has reached an internal temperature of 180°. The total cooking time should be about 15 minutes per pound. If cooking outdoors you will want to change your charcoal about every 30 to 40 minutes.
When the chicken is done, remove it from the Dutch oven and place it onto a cutting board to rest. Remove and set aside in a bowl all but a couple tablespoons of the drippings from your Dutch oven. Stir the shallot, tarragon, white wine and Dijon mustard into the drippings in your Dutch oven. Cook the sauce, continuously stirring until until the liquid has boiled out. Add in the butter and the reserved drippings and stir until the butter is melted and the sauce well blended.
Carve the chicken and serve with the tarragon butter sauce over rice, noodles or mashed potatoes. Be sure to include a green vegetable for a healthy, balanced meal
Serves 6-8