Mexican Roasted Chicken

Mexican Roasted Chicken


Ingredients

  • 1 large 4 to 5 ½ pound whole organic chicken
  • ½ cup olive oil
  • 1 large lemon, juiced
  • 1 lime, juiced
  • 2 tsp. sea salt
  • 1 tsp. onion powder
  • 1 tsp. garlic powder
  • 1 tsp. black pepper
  • 1 tsp. cumin
  • 1 tsp. chipotle chili powder
  • 2 red or yellow bell peppers, seeded and sliced
  • 1 large onion, cut into wedges
  • 3-4 carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
  • 5-6 garlic cloves, peeled and minced or unpeeled and whole

Directions

  1. About 30 minutes before cooking, pull the chicken out of the refrigerator and let it sit on the counter to start to come up to room temperature. Rinse chicken, pat the skin dry with paper towels and preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
  2. Combine the oil, lemon juice, lime juice, salt, onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper, cumin, and chipotle chili powder together in a mason jar with a gasket lid and shake well or in a bowl and whisk to combine.
  3. Place the peppers, onion wedges and carrots in the bottom of a Dutch oven or roaster. (if you minced the garlic, stir that in. If garlic is preferred unpeeled and whole, just place beneath the butterflied chicken or within the cavity if chicken is roasted whole.)
  4. Butterfly/spatchcock the chicken to lay flat over the vegetables. (Cut on one side of the backside/spine with a serrated knife or kitchen shears and open and lay flat on a flat surface. I do this in my sink and press firmly down on breastbone to break anything keeping chicken from lying flat.
  5. Set the chicken on top of the vegetables, then drizzle the spice mixture over the chicken, rubbing it around to coat the skin.
  6. If you prefer leaving the chicken whole, stuff the cavity of the chicken with garlic cloves and the leftover lemon and lime peels from juicing the lemon and lime. Tuck the wing tips and tie the legs together with kitchen twine.
  7. Place the chicken into the oven and roast until the skin is golden and a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh reaches 165 degrees, about 50 minutes to 1 hour. You can tent the chicken with foil if it seems to be browning too quickly. Larger chickens may require additional cooking time.
  8. When the chicken is cooked through, remove it from the oven and let it rest for 20 minutes before carving. When ready, carve chicken and spoon vegetables and juice over carved chicken pieces to keep moist, or transfer the vegetables to a serving platter with a slotted spoon and arrange the carved chicken on the same platter to serve. Pour juices over both chicken and veggies.
NOTE:
If your whole chicken comes with the little packet in the cavity containing the neck, heart, gizzard and liver, they can either be saved for a bone broth or cleaned and trimmed and added to the veggies. There are a lot of essential nutrients in organ meats.

2 thoughts on “Mexican Roasted Chicken

Leave a Reply