Food For The Fresh: Roasted Chicken w/ Citrus-Garlic Sauce

As you can see from the picture, this recipe is entertaining gold. It is also a very simple method; perfect for feeding the family, or grateful roommates, on a busy weeknight. Or, dress it up, and impress on the weekend!

The chicken is stuffed with oranges, lemons, and garlic, and then roasted with a citrusy-herby-garlicky marinade. You will be blown away by how fantastically moist, and intensely flavorful it is! Serve with a quick & easy sauce made from the chicken drippings, and you've got a great go-to, crowd-pleasing meal. You won't be disappointed...

** CITRUS AND GARLIC ROASTED CHICKEN**

Ingredients
* 1 whole roasting chicken, neck and giblets discarded (5-6 lbs.)
* 32 oz. chicken broth (1 carton or 2 cans)
* 1-2 lemons, quartered
* 1 orange, quartered (or similar size to match the lemon pieces)
* 1 head garlic, each clove halved or crushed
* Salt & pepper

Marinade
* 3 garlic cloves, minced
* 1/4 cup frozen orange juice concentrate, room temp
* 1/4 cup lemon juice
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 2 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs -- oregano, Italian parsley, and thyme work well (I used parsley because it's what I had on hand - reduce to 1 tablespoon if using thyme)
* Salt & pepper

Supplies Needed
* Roasting pan (I got a really great deal on mine on amazon.com -- not big enough for a turkey, but perfect for a chicken)
* Whisk
* Kitchen string

Directions
* Preheat the oven to 400F.
* Pat your prepared chicken dry with a paper towel. Sprinkle both the cavity and the outside with salt and pepper.
* Stuff the cavity with the lemon, orange, and garlic pieces.
* Tie the legs together with your kitchen string (I've also used a rubber band in a pinch, and it works just fine).
* Tie the wings in so they are closer to the center of the chicken, otherwise they tend to dry out.
* Place your chicken on your roasting pan, and put in the oven with the rack positioned lower in the oven.

Here is what your prepared pre-cooked chicken should look like.

* Pour about half your chicken broth in the bottom of the roasting pan. This will help the drippings from burning, and keep your chicken nice & moist.
* Bake for 50-60 minutes (50 minutes for a 5 lb chicken, and 60 for a 6 lb. chicken).
* While the chicken is cooking, prepare the marinade by whisking together the marinade ingredients.

* Remove the chicken from the oven, and thoroughly baste the chicken with the marinade.

Pre-Marinade

Post-Marinade

* Put your chicken back in the oven, and continue cooking for another 40-45 minutes. The chicken will be nice and roasted-looking, and the innermost thigh should register at 170F.
** While your chicken is cooking, continue basting the chicken with its drippings every 10 minutes or so.
** Add the remaining chicken broth to the pan after you baste, until the entire broth amount is gone.

* Once you take the roasted chicken out of the oven, transfer the chicken to a serving platter, and cover loosely with foil.
** Before cutting into your chicken, let your chicken rest for at least 15 minutes. Resting is an extremely important process for keeping all kinds of meat moist and tender. After cooking, the juices in the meat redistribute through out the meat over the next few minutes. If you cut into the meat during this process, the juices will run out of the meat, and your meat will be much drier as a result. Trust me!! Rest your meat!

* Make the sauce while your chicken is resting.
* Place your roasting pan on the stove top over medium heat (or you can pour the juices into a sauce pan, but one less pan this way!).

* Whisk the drippings for about 3-5 minutes, until the liquid reduces, and thickens into a nice sauce.
* If it doesn't thicken up, just add a little butter and flour, and this should help it along. Just make sure to cook (and whisk) at least 3 minutes after adding the flour, so it cooks out (you don't want any flour flavor in your sauce).
* Strain your sauce. It is now ready to serve!