Orange You Glad You Made This Roasted Chicken?

NcMysteryShopper's Note:

I served this creation for dinner with our house guests and everyone raved over the recipe. It is one of those dishes where every bite led to another compliment. Moist, and flavorful - Slightly sweet and citrusy! The kids loved it as much as the adults. If you have a large family you may want to make two chickens, especially if you are planning to have leftovers! There is an extra contest ingredient in case you want to leave out the orange liqueur (but I wouldn't!). Serve with rice and veggies. This recipe was created for RSC #9.------

• Total Time: 1 hrs 30 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs 20 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 1 (3 ½-4 lb) roasting chickens
• 1 white onion , quartered
• 1 bunch fresh basil
• 1 bunch fresh rosemary (dried rosemary may be subbed if necessary, I used fresh)
• 1⁄8; cup butter , sliced (plus extra to rub on skin)
• 1 orange , quartered
• 3 garlic cloves , sliced lengthwise into long ovals
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ teaspoon fresh ground pepper
• 1 cup orange juice , freshly squeezed preferred
• 4 tablespoons Grand Marnier (see description) or 4 tablespoons Cointreau liqueur (see description)
• 8 dried apricots , finely chopped, processed
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar (optional)
• 1 tablespoon flour (optional)

Directions:

1. Clean chicken and pat dry. Sprinkle Salt and Pepper into the chicken cavity.
2. Pierce skin of chicken with knife in 5-7 places and insert half of the garlic slices under the skin.
3. Stuff (in small batches to make even throughout cavity) onion, fresh herbs, butter, orange quarters, and remaining garlic. Rub chicken skin with a little butter. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
4. To close opening, make two slices in the chicken skin, one on either side of opening, and place the leg bone from the opposite side into the sliced skin on both sides.
5. Roast chicken at 400 degrees for 15 minutes to get skin crisp and then lower heat to 350 and continue to roast for 65 minutes, or when internal thermometer reaches 180 degrees, or when juices run clear. Occasionally baste chicken with pan juices.
6. Remove chicken from pan and place on a platter.
7. Pour pan juices into a sauce pan and add 3/4 cups of the orange juice, Grand Marnier, chopped apricots and brown sugar (if using, remember this will make it a bit sweeter.) Whisk on high until it comes to a boil, lower temp and whisk occasionally until sauce thickens (about 7 minutes) add flour if necessary. You can add the remaining 1/4 cup of OJ if you need to reheat the sauce.
8. Pour sauce over the chicken slices when served.

Reviews

[Sandy in Dayton]

Sauce was awesome, but chicken was only pretty good. With all the great ingredients, was expecting much better - I put it together using all fresh ingredients, covered it and refrigerated for 2 hours - it cooked up really nice and pretty and was really moist, but next time I will put the fresh herbs under the skin and put the whole chicken in a large baggie and pour the mixture of the fresh orange juice with apricots and Grand Mariner over the whole chicken and marinate for at least 2 hours. I will save the marinate liquid and boil it and then add the juices from the baked chicken like you suggested. I did not add the brown sugar. I used corn starch instead of flour to thicken the final sauce. Thanks NcMysteryShopper for a good chicken and a great starting place. I am going to try this on a pork tenderloin

[Valkey]

Sorry, this one just didn't do it for me. Not that it was a bad recipe, I just realized I'm not a citrus/sweet sauce person. I did as others suggested and only used 1 T of brown sugar and it was still really sweet. The chicken did turn out very moist. One tip, if you get a chicken that is over 4lbs, make sure you allow extra roasting time.

[Caitlin Williams]

Delicious! Tender juicy meat in 1.5 hours, great flavor. Easy to make. I threw some carrots in the pan for the last half hour, the gravy went very well with the carrots. The gravy was just a touch too sweet for me, my boyfriend loved it as is. Next time I think I will only use 1 Tbsp of sugar. And yes, there will be a next time, hopefully soon:)