My aunt has a farm in Olympia, Washington with llamas, jacob's sheep, and garlic. Right now the garlic is still in the ground maturing for a late summer harvest. On a recent visit to Flying Coyote Farm with my friend Justine my aunt sent us home with some fresh green garlic sprouts. I decided to make the young garlic the center piece of my Sunday dinner.
Along with a few other herbs from my garden this organic chicken was ready and waiting to be tasty.
The first step to a tasty chicken is making sure you have a good chicken. The more local, antibiotic free and organic the better.
The next step once you have your chicken is to wash the bird thoroughly and place it in a oven safe baking dish. Take 3 tbsp of lemon juice and or 1/2 of a whole lemon pour/squeeze a little bit over the chicken and pour the rest inside the chicken's cavity. Let the chicken hang out with the lemon juice as you prepare your flavoring.
For this meal the co-star to my aunt's garlic will be the ignored cousin of oregano – majorum. This is a shot of the majorum growing profusely in my herb garden.
As best supporting actor of this production flat leaf parsley.
Finely chop all of the herbs together. For this small chicken I used a small handful of each herb and about 4 of the fresh garlic stems. Use your judgment based on the size of your chicken – however, there is no such thing as too many herbs when you are cooking chicken so error on the side of generosity.
Before seasoning the chicken, find two lemons and cut them into quarters. Stuff the quarters with some of the herb mixture into the cavity of the bird. If you have it you can also put some celery and onion slices into the cavity with the lemons. If you have no lemons you can just use onions. The lemon or onion inside the cavity of the chicken will ensure that the bird stays moist and the flavors of all the herbs soak into the meat from the inside out.
Once the cavity is full now you are ready to season the bird. Take a handful of the herb mixture and push it under the skin of the chicken just above the cavity but between the breast. The skin should easily pull up to allow you to push the herbs in. Massage the skin to work the herbs further along the chicken until they cover the entire breast. Repeat this on the other side. After, rub the remain herbs all over the outside of the skin of the chicken.
Seal the chicken's cavity with cooking string or if you do not have any string you can use skewers like me.
Bake the chicken for 1.5 hours at 350 degrees. It will smell great with all of the herbage and come out of the oven looking like this.
All the neighbors will be wanting some of your Flying Coyote Farm Garlic Herbed Chicken.
Below is my Sunday night spread featuring the Flying Coyote Garlic Herbed chicken, roasted beats, garlic green beans, and a fresh green salad. I paired the dinner with a Savignon Blanc.
Flying Coyote Farm Garlic Herbed Chicken
1 small whole organic chicken
3 Tbsp lemon juice
4 young garlic stems
2 springs fresh majoram
3 stems of italian parlsey
2 lemons or 1 lemon & 1 lime
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp black pepper
Chop the herbs and prepare the chicken as described above. Cook at 350 degrees for 1.5 hours and enjoy!
Yum yum!!