Oven Roasted Chicken with Thyme

See that picture up there? Notice anything about the wings? Yep, I did it again; I cooked my chicken upside down. Honestly, I still wasn't sure which side was the breast, but remembering how moist my upside-down Thanksgiving turkey turned out, I really didn't care. Once, the turkey came out of the oven and it was time to carve it up, I realized that it's actually not that hard to figure out which side is the breast...it's meatier.

Back to this recipe though, it was really moist and flavorful. It wasn't as lemony as I'd hoped, but I think I am the only one who expected a lot of tang here. I served the chicken with oven-roasted broccoli for the husband and a spring salad with homemade croutons for me.

Oven Roasted Chicken with Thyme
Served with Wilted Spring Greens and Homemade Croutons

Source: adapted from Martha Stewart Everyday Food (March edition)
Printable Recipe

Ingredients for the Chicken
1 whole chicken, 3 1/2 to 4 pounds
1 lemon, halved
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme + 3 whole sprigs
1 teaspoon dried thyme
salt
pepper (I used a combination of regular black pepper and freshly ground citrus pepper)

Salad Ingredients
8 ounces crusty bread (I used a leftover hoagie roll)
12 ounces spring mix salad
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar (I used peach champagne vinegar)
pan juices from the chicken
garlic salt
pepper
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Directions for the chicken
Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees.

Remove any gizzards from your chicken. Rinse the chicken and pat dry. Set the chicken on a rimmed baking sheet, or in a roasting pan, breast side up.

Squeeze the juice of half a lemon inside the chicken cavity; place the rinds inside, along with the springs fresh thyme.

Squeeze the juice of the other lemon half all over the chicken. Rub the chicken with 2 tablespoons olive oil. Sprinkle with the fresh and dried thyme (I like using both, but you can just use one or the other if you prefer), salt and pepper.

Roast in the oven until a meat thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the thigh reads 165 degrees (about 45 to 50 minutes). Remove the chicken from the oven and transfer to a rimmed platter to rest. Do not cut into the meat right away as it will cause all of the juices to run out, leaving your meat dry.

Directions for the salad



Tear the bread into chunks.

Once you've transferred the chicken to a platter, toss the bread in the pan juices in the roasting pan. Season with garlic salt and pepper.

Bake until the croutons are golden and crispy, about 7 minutes.

Pour any accumulated chicken juice from the resting platter into a bowl. Add the croutons, spring mix, 1 tablespoon olive oil, and vinegar. Toss and serve with the chicken.