Good-bye, Christmas!

Our Christmas was absolutely amazing! Even though we have been together 4 years and married almost 3, this is the first Christmas that we have enjoyed with just the 2 of us. We started around 1:30 with opening presents...bazillions of presents. It took us over an hour to open everything! We had presents from each other, and family and friends and it took a long time! We of course, being somewhat young at heart thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We took 134 pictures together, mainly because of my new digital camera (which I opened last night). Okay, so maybe it was a few more than necessary, but we had fun! After opening presents, we Skyped with my in-laws in order to open our stockings (from them). Rich's mom always does such an amazing job with the stockings. She finds so many unique little things to put inside! Then I got to work preparing my chicken. I suppose I should go through prep since I blogged about this chicken yesterday!

I rinsed the hen, then pulled the skin on the breast away from the meat. I pounded my lemon, then sliced it in half. I also kept 2 thin round slices for garnish. I squeezed the lemon into the cavity of the bird. I then sliced in onion-1 round slice, and cut up the rest into large pieces. I filled about 2/3 of the cavity with the onion. I also rubbed the halves of lemon onto the skin. Then I prepared my butter. I combined 1 stick of softened butter, 2 tbsp minced garlic, 1 tsp salt, and 1 tsp pepper together. Then I took about 2 tsp of fresh thyme (leaves only) and mixed that into the butter as well. I rubbed the majority of the butter mixture under the skin on the breast of the chicken, then spread the remaining butter on top of the chicken, I took several sprigs of thyme and inserted them about 1/2 way into the cavity of the bird, then trussed the legs. I salted and peppered the top of the bird, then set a slice of onion and 2 slices of lemon, with some long slices of lemon zest and thyme leaves for garnish. Then I put the chicken, carrots, and potatoes in my roasting pan and decided to add some chicken broth to the pan. I added about 2/3 of a small can of Swanson broth.  I started it at 450 degrees for 30 minutes, then lowered to 400 for about 50 minutes. It came out DELICOUS. It was so succulent and moist. I don't feel like the recipe called for enough salt and pepper. I think I would double it next time, but we salted at the table and it was fine. I am going to post a picture of my pre-roasted meal and the finished chicken. My only complaint is that the skin didn't get as brown and crispy as I like, but I'm fairly certain that's because I added the chicken broth to the pan. Though it affected the skin, it caused the potatoes and carrots to be delish!!

Goodbye, Christmas!!