Roast chicken is just so homey to me. And it makes as great of an everyday meal as it does a holiday or special occasion meal. It’s so easy to do and so very good. And the leftovers are great for chicken salad or chicken soup.
Roasted Chicken and Potatoes
4 servings
374 calories per serving
2 T garlic, minced
1 t salt
3/4 t pepper
1/2 t rosemary
1 3 ½ pound roasting chicken
Pam
12 oz red potatoes, quartered
1 1/2 c cubed peeled butternut squash
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix half the garlic with half the salt and pepper then add the rosemary. Prepare the chicken for roasting and then loosen the skin and rub the garlic mix under the skin. Place chicken on a rack in a broiler pan that has been sprayed with Pam. Mix potatoes, squash and the rest of the garlic salt and pepper and arrange around the chicken. Bake 1 hour or until done. Let stand 10 minutes then discard skin and carve chicken.
I just found a new favorite chicken soup ! For years I have made ‘my chicken soup’ more often than any other recipe. But this one just takes the cake and this is my new ‘go to’ recipe. It combines home cooked goodness with just a little something extra…the evaporated milk makes the broth become such a mellow base and the roasted chicken has such a great texture – very different from your traditional soup where you cook the chicken in the broth. Give it a try !!
Roasted Chicken Noodle Soup (Crock Pot)
6 servings
373 calories per serving
1 c onions, chopped
1 c carrots, chopped
1 c celery, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 t oil
¼ t flour
½ t oregano flakes
¼ t onion powder
¼ t garlic powder
6 c fat free chicken broth
2 c water
4 c diced potatoes (I used canned)
1 t salt
2 c skinless roasted chicken, diced (Perdue Shortcuts work great here!)
2 c wide egg noodles
1 c fat free evaporated milk
Heat a skillet and add oil and brown onions, carrots, celery and garlic. Stir in flour, oregano, garlic powder and onion powder and then pour into crock and mix in broth, water, potatoes and salt. Cover and cook on low 5-6 hours. Add chicken, noodles and milk and cook until noodles are tender, about ½ hour. If you don’t have a crock pot, you can easily do this stove top. Just let it simmer for an hour or 2 at very low temperature for the first step, then add the chicken, noodles and milk and let cook another 15 minutes or so.
Roasted chicken is a bit higher in calories than chicken breast cooked without the skin, but sometimes you just gotta splurge 🙂 Even though you peel the skin off to stay at the low calorie level, because it was cooked with the skin on, it is super moist and quite tasty.
Roasted Chicken
142 calories per 3 oz. serving of white breast meat
1 Roaster chicken
Water
Salt
Pepper
Lemon Pepper
1-2 onions
Pam
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove chicken from wrappings, wash it off inside and out. If there are any packets of giblets or anything stuffed inside the chicken, be sure to remove them.
Place the chicken in a roaster pan, or a baking dish atop a rack. If you don’t have a rack or a roaster, you can just place it in a baking dish and it will do fine, the bottom will just have a bit of a different texture.
Sprinkle the inside of the chicken with salt and pepper and then stuff with the whole, peeled onions. As the chicken cooks, the onion flavor really flavors the meet nicely. Lay the chicken back down breast side up and sprinkle with salt, pepper and lemon pepper. Place ½ c water in the bottom of the pan so the chicken will ‘steam’ as it cooks. This helps keep the meat moist.
Spray one side of aluminum foil with Pam. Place this side toward the chicken and cover the pan trying not to press the foil down against the chicken – make more of a tent of the foil.
Cook chicken for the time directed on the package which will be based on the weight of the chicken. The juices should run clear when it is completely done. Chickens usually cook for 15 minutes per pound.
Let it sit a bit before carving so that the juices do not all leave the meat as you carve it.
Here are some great instructions for how to carve a chicken – it’s really not hard ! Especially if you are mainly wanting nicely sliced breast meat (and you can save the thighs, legs and other dark meat for making soup).
http://www.howcast.com/videos/8687-How-To-Carve-a-Chicken
