Herb and Garlic Baked Chicken

 Oven baked chicken is one of my favorite recipes to make at home. It is healthy, yummy, and easy to cook.  I will describe to you step-by-step how to make oven baked chicken. This recipe will easily serve 4 people.

Ingredients

Oven baked chicken with potatoes and carrots. My lunch today. :)

• 1 whole chicken- about 2 to 3 pounds.
• 6 small red potatoes
• 3 large carrots
• 1 tbsp of fresh thyme
• 1 tbsp of fresh rosemary
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 2 tsp of kosher salt
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp black pepper
• Olive oil

Preparation

First make roasted garlic by placing peeled garlic cloves into a small ovenproof dish. Cook in the oven covered with about a tsp of olive oil at 400 degrees for about 30 to 40 minutes or until the garlic is soft. Set aside to cool. 

Then, remove the raw chicken from any wrapping and rinse the chicken off with running water. Remove the gizzard, heart, and neck from inside the chicken. Once the chicken is clean, place the chicken in a casserole dish sprayed with cooking spray. Be sure to wash your hands and any surfaces the chicken has touched to prevent the spread of salmonella. 

Raw chicken ready to go into the oven. 

Next, crush up the fresh thyme and rosemary in a mortar and pestle with kosher salt and about 2 tsp of olive oil. Make sure to remove all the stems from the herbs. Crush the herbs until a mushy consistency is made. Now, rub the cooked cloves of garlic and the herbs all over the chicken. Then, slice up your potatoes and carrots into large size pieces. Place the veggies around the chicken. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the chicken and veggies. Pour about a tbsp or so of olive oil over your raw veggies and chicken. 

Chicken is cooked and ready to enter my belly. Delicious!

Cover the the chicken in the casserole dish with aluminum foil and put the chicken into a 375 degree preheated oven for two hours. Then, uncover the chicken and broil the chicken for about 5 minutes to brown the skin. Before broiling, you can rub butter on the skin to help make the chicken skin crispy. (This is optional.) 

Serve the chicken warm with the veggies on the side. Enjoy!