Balsamic Roasted Chicken

photo courtesy of The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen

I don't know why, but for some reason, I've always been intimidated by roasting a whole chicken. Perhaps because the sight of a raw chicken carcass kind of freaks me out, and certainly having to TOUCH the thing really freaks me out. But I've decided it's worth it because the end result is so amazingly tasty. My family has been eating a lot of lean proteins lately, so obviously chicken breast is a huge part of our repertoire. A whole chicken has more dark meat and fat to it so I wouldn't recommend eating it really frequently, but what a treat! And even though I purchase organic chicken, I have to admit that it's way more economical to roast a whole chicken than it is to cook enough chicken breasts for the family.

Last night I made The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen's Balsamic Roasted Chicken with Figs and Sweet Onions, and Oh.My.Goodness. my family and I were In Love. As is often the case with me, I hadn't really planned ahead and so didn't have all the proper ingredients for the recipe...but it still turned out amazing. I didn't have any figs or sprigs of rosemary. I just roasted that puppy with onions...added a couple of cloves of garlic to the onions I stuffed inside the cavity. I seasoned it just like the recipe recommended and within the first ten minutes of it being in the oven, the whole house smelled HEAVENLY. My son's physical therapist was here at the time and was waxing eloquent about the amazing aroma of balsamic emanating from my kitchen.

By the time the whole thing was ready to eat, the family had such a high level of anticipation because they'd been smelling awesome-ness for a couple of hours. And then you could tell from the silence and fork-thrusting-towards-mouths that they were happy. When they finally came up for air,  my seven-year-old said, "This feels like Christmas! Or Thanksgiving!" I tried to pass it off like, oh yeah, I slaved over this for hours...when really it was SO easy and just made me look good.

The onions are practically like a dessert by the time they are done. I served a big old green salad with it and everybody was happy. The best part? I always try to make enough dinner to have leftovers for lunch the next day. So I get to eat it again today. :-)