A Winelover's Wanderings

Today is the first edition of our newest Slow Travel/Talk food challenge, Sunday Slow Suppers! Our little group of bloggers (and some non-bloggers) cooks and posts each Sunday. We have baked from Gina DePalma's "Dolce Italiano" - we have made ice cream from David Lebovitz's "The Perfect Scoop" - we have made our favorite soups and salads - and we just completed a series of appetizers (small bites). So, now it is on to entrees - all types of entrees. Each week one of my compadres will post a recipe from one of the entree categories, and we will put our own spin on it. Sound like fun?

To kick off the series, Amy of Destination Anywhere chose a roasted chicken recipe (roast category).

Amy found this recipe on Simply Recipes.

Smoked Paprika Roasted Chicken

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp smoked paprika (Plus a bit more for inside the chicken)
2 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp softened butter
2 teaspoons garlic salt (or 1 teaspoon salt plus 1 teaspoon garlic powder)
1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 whole 4-5 pound roasting chicken
1 onion, quartered

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Rinse the chicken off. Pat dry thoroughly with paper towels (otherwise the paste won't stick).

2. Mix together the paprika, honey, lemon juice, butter, garlic salt, and pepper. Spread it over the entire surface of the chicken, then place chicken on a shallow baking pan. Sprinkle a bit of paprika into the cavity, and place the cut onion in the cavity.

3 Bake at 325°F for approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes or more. You may need to adjust the time depending on how big your chicken is. The chicken is done when the juices run clear (not pink) when a knife tip is inserted into both the chicken breast and thigh, about 165-170°F for the breast and 180-185°F for the thigh. I like to cover the breast with foil for part of the time so it doesn't dry out.

4 Let chicken rest for 5 minutes, then carve and serve.

I pretty much went by the recipe. I haven't roasted a chicken in many a moon - probably at least 20 years, so I figured I had better follow the recipe exactly this first time. I did bake it longer, probably close to two hours.

It turned out a beautiful red orange color, but a little darker than I would have liked. It's a good thing I "practiced" on Bill rather than making it for guests! We did like the smoked paprika flavor (McCormicks).

Oh! I improvised slightly in roasting the chicken upside down. I had read that it keeps the breast moist, but obviously (now that I think about it), the paprika paste is on the wrong side! Woe is me - how could I screw up an easy roasted chicken??? I will try it again, though, so it was a learning experiende!