Carolina Rotisserie or Roasted Apple Chicken

This is a flavorful and moist chicken that is super easy to prepare. The sweet flavor of the subtly apple-scented chicken is marvelous, and the crispy sweet skin has a wonderful tang. I made the chicken in a Rotisserie oven but it can easily be made in a shallow roasting pan in the oven. If you are using a larger roasting chicken, adjust the oven time per pound.

• Ready In: 1 hr 15 mins
• Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 1 (3 1/2-4 lb)  broiler-fryer chickens
• 1  sweet onion, cut into large chunks
• 1  small apple, unpeeled and cut into large chunks
• 2  small celery ribs
•  fresh herb (optional)
•  salt
•  freshly grated black pepper

• Glaze

• 1  tablespoon  oil
• 2  tablespoons  apple juice (optional)
• 2  tablespoons honey
• 1  tablespoon lime juice
• 1⁄2 teaspoon paprika (I used Hungarian Hot Paprika)
• 1⁄4 teaspoon sea salt

Directions

1. Wash the chicken and pat dry. Sprinkle salt and pepper in the cavity. Stuff the onion, apple and celery in the cavity and tie legs (and wings if using a rotisserie) with cooking string.
2. Mix all glaze ingredients in small bowl (warm in microwave if your honey does not blend).
3. Pour a small amount of glaze on chicken while holding over sink and rub the chicken all over. Make sure it is covered. Reserve remaining glaze.
4. Place in rotisserie oven and pour the remaining glaze in the oven's catch pan. Set timer to 75 minutes and periodically baste the chicken with the juices in the pan (you can pull the pan out a little bit and tip it to fill the baster). Check your oven's manual for correct size/time as each rotisserie oven is different.
5. For oven: Place chicken on rack in roasting pan and roast about 2 hours at 325 degrees until golden and fragrant, basting every twenty or thirty minutes with glaze and any juices in the pan.
6. Chicken is fully cooked when the juices run clear and the meat is white, with no pink remaining. The temperature in the dark meat should be 180 degrees on the meat thermometer. If the chicken is not fully cooked, reset the timer for an additional 10 minutes and test again.
7. If you are not serving immediately, tent chicken with foil and let it rest for about 10-15 minutes before carving.