Perfect This Recipe | Lee's Brothers Roast Chicken

So you guys may remember that Heath and I have been testing tons of Roast Chicken recipes the past two weeks in search of THE Perfect Roast Chicken.  Between the two of us, we've tested 11 birds in the past 14 days.  That's a lot of chicken, but guys, I've learned that I'm pretty much obsessed with roast chicken.  It's seriously the best dinner.  So, after much testing, the winner is....Lee Brother's Roast Chicken!   Ina's Roast Chicken was a close second!  The Lee Brother's recipe wasn't even in our planned line up, but our friend Katherine commented that it was their go to recipe so we decided to test it too.  Guys, it was SO good.  (Thank you Katherine!)

If you're looking for a good, classic roast chicken, perfectly juicy with crispy skin, definitely go with Lee Brother's recipe.  It was super easy.  You basically chop a few onions and potatoes, put them in the bottom of a pan, put the roast chicken on top and squeeze half a lemon over the chicken.  Then pop it in the oven.  After about 20 minutes, you flip the chicken and squeeze the other half of the lemon over the chicken and back into the oven it goes.  Using only lemon on the chicken makes the skin crispy and delicious. 

If you really love a simple gravy with your roast chicken, I'd recommend Ina's Jeffrey's Roast Chicken Recipe.  It's really delicious too.  If you're not a lemon lover, I'd cut the lemon way back.  In Ina's recipe, you chop onions and lemons and put them in a dish with the whole bird on top.  You roast the entire bird for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, and while the chicken is resting you add some wine and chicken stock to the pan ingredients to create a simple gravy.  Super good but definitely the lemon stands out.

J.D. and I loved all of this roast chicken so much we've basically decided it's our new Sunday staple.  Basically roast chicken is SUPER easy (the entire bird looks/sounds a little intimidating) but seriously it's as easy as chopping a few things and tossing it in the oven.  It's healthy, and it's so comforting.  Even after having chicken night after night testing different recipes, J.D. and I never once got tired of having a really delish roast chicken dinner.  And finally, it's so versatile.  You can add whatever veggies you're in the mood for along side the chicken.  One night we threw in extra potatoes and quickly sautéed spinach, and another night we made rice and roasted brussels sprouts.  We usually had leftovers that I made into chicken quesadillas the following night.  Super good guys, we'd highly recommend giving a roast chicken a try if you've been intimidated in the past!  (Bonus, perfect for entertaining but you fix it and then forget about while it cooks!)

~Mary Keller