Citrus Roasted Chicken

This is sooo delicious.  I mean it’s really, really good.

I had a young chicken thawing in the fridge for a couple of days.  I told the kids I would make them chicken and waffles pretty much all weekend. I just didn’t quite get to it. Thing is they’d rather have wings with their waffles, so I took the young bird for myself.

Roasted chicken with herbs and citrus sounded pretty good to me. I happen to have made a citrus rub earlier for salmon to marinate overnight. I had all these lemons, limes, oranges and the rub left over.  I was afraid that the chicken wouldn’t have much flavor since I was going to season it and immediately cook it. Ha…who am I kidding this rub was packed with flavor.

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I had a mixture of oranges, lemons, limes and mandarins. I used a white onion too. It’s sweet and mild, paired well with the fruit without overwhelming it. It makes a beautiful sauce.

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I cut the chicken in half and coated it with kosher salt.  Set it to the side. I rolled the fruit to extract as much flavor out of it as possible.  I cut the small fruit in half and squeezed the juice into a bowl. I quartered the oranges and put the juice in the bowl.

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I laid the juiced fruit pieces in the bottom of the glass roasting pan with the onions.  I then put the chicken that was completely dry  on top of the fruit and onions. I poured the juice on the chicken and coated it with the RUB!!!

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I roasted it for an hour total…10 min at 450° and 50 min at 350°. The aroma alone was BLAZING!! I covered it with foil after removing it from the oven for 10 more min.

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I served it over a jerk rice pilaf.  I will make this a million times over. I used my lemon pepper grind as a base for the rub. You can add all the herbs and spice you want to it. You won’t be disappointed.

• Let chicken sit out and get close to room temp before putting it in the oven
• Make sure chicken is dry to touch before putting the juice on
• Use dry herbs in your rub
• Use fresh herbs…i.e. lemon thyme to tuck in the chicken while cooking
• Can marinate in a bag overnight with the citrus and rub(delicious either way)