This past Monday, I started my 3rd class at Le Cordon Bleu. The main focus of this class is protein. We will learn all about Chicken, Duck, Lamb, Fish, Sausage, Pork and on and on.

On day 1 of this class we learned how to roast and break down a chicken. I have always been intrigued by roasted chickens and I am a sucker for the grocery store rotisserie chicken. After today, I will now be a sucker for THIS chicken. Mainly for 2 reasons: 1. It’s delicious and 2. My apartment smells amazing!

So here we go…

What you’ll need: 1 whole chicken (Most grocery stores will already have them tied up for you) 1 lemon, a few sprigs of thyme, 2 garlic cloves, and butta! 

There are so many different ingredient mixtures you could do; you can use an apple instead of lemon, rosemary, oranges; really anything you like. I personally love the lemon and garlic flavor this chicken takes on.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees

Unwrap your birdie, and wash him under some cold water and pat him dry.

I prefer organic chicken purely for their habitat conditions and treatment. That is a topic for another day, so let’s move on shall we…

Stuff the chicken cavity with the lemon, thyme and garlic cloves.

Peek-a-boo!

Then with two fingers separate the skin from the chicken breasts. You may have to use a little bit of force but I promise the skin won’t tear.

Now take a good heaping tablespoon of butter in your fingers and coat the inside of the skin. This will make the skin nice and crispy while keeping the breasts moist… and butta is delicious, right? Right!

Now, I have a roasting pan like shown above with crevices that allow the juices to drip. You can also use a baking sheet and a cookie cooling tray. You just want to make sure that the juice drippings have a place to go so the bottom of your birdie isn’t sitting in it’s own funk.

Season the outside of the chicken with some S&P and put in the oven.

We are going to let him go for about an hour and a half, so sit back and take in the beautiful aromas that are about to fill your kitchen.

After an hour and a half has passed or your chicken has reached 165 degrees (chicken safe zone) remove the bird and let it rest for about 20-30 minutes. This will allow the juices that have expanded to set inside the meat. Trust me on this one.

If your like me, you’ve already started picking at it and eating, so have at it!

I tried to take pictures of the break down process, but my fingers were greasy, the camera was slipping all over, and frankly the pictures looked like poo. So I will show you how to break down a chicken another day when someone else can take the pictures.

So for now just enjoy!

* Today is a perfect day for a perfect day!