Roasted Chicken

Oh my God. Roasting a chicken is sooooo hard...is what you can say to those you serve it to. In truth, roasting anything is probably the easiest thing you'll ever do in the kitchen. I'm sorry this post is late, but I wanted to have at least one photograph to share with you. The bird I roasted was eight pounds because I wanted leftovers to make chicken pot pie from. I do apologize for the quality of the photo, I'm not a photographer, and the lighting in my kitchen isn't really conducive to good food photos (and the sun sets waaaay before dinner time this time of year). But to add visual interest...here's the chicken I made for dinner tonight It's not on a pretty serving plate, because we carve before serving:







Now, are you ready for the long involved directions?

Get a chicken. Take a tablespoon or two of softened butter and mix with poultry seasoning. Rub the seasoned butter between your hands and slid your hands up under the skin of the chicken. Stick it in the oven in a roasting pan for 1/2 hour per pound at 350 degrees. Remove from oven and nom. It's that easy.

Roasted Chicken
Ingredients
Choose a chicken that gives you about 1/4 to 1/2 pound of meat per person. - $0.89 per pound.
1 tsp poultry seasoning - $0.84
1-2 tbsp butter - softened - $0.16

Directions
Take the chicken out of any packaging it comes in, reach into the cavity between the legs (sounds dirty, I know) and remove the neck and organs, which should be in a plastic or wax paper bag. Rinse the chicken. Mix the butter and poultry seasoning and then slide your hands under the skin and rub the butter across the breasts. (Again...dirty) After putting most of the butter under the skin, rub whatever's left across the top of the skin, this will give you a nice golden color when it's done cooking. Put the chicken into the roasting pan breast side up (by the way, the breast is the rounded side of the bird) and stick it in a 350 degree oven for 1/2 hour per pound of meat. Test it with a meat thermometer to ensure it's done, but if you don't have one, check and make sure the juices are running clear (no pinkish tinge). Let it sit for ten minutes or so after taking it out of the oven (this makes it easier to cut). Carve it up and serve it! 

Total estimated recipe cost: $8.12
Per Serving estimated recipe cost:  $0.50 (based on sixteen servings)

I usually serve this with plain old mashed potatoes, gravy, and a steamed frozen vegetable, which would bring the total price for the meal to:


Total estimated meal cost: $6.54
Per Serving estimated recipe cost:  $0.81 (based on eight servings)

Since I plan to get a second meal out of the chicken, I halved the cost of it for this meal.