Lemon Thyme Garlic Roasted Chicken

I hope everyone had a great Easter! We had a fabulous one, and I can't wait to share all my recipes with you all...especially dessert! I was so sad this year that we couldn't be near family. Easter has always been one of my favorite holiday's. I decided to invite some friends over to the house this year who I knew didn't have any big plans either. I figured it would be nice to be with them since we all couldn't be at home.

My original plans involved a rack of Lamb, but it was SO EXPENSIVE that I decided to go with roasted chicken instead. I had several reasons for this:

1-I knew it would be fairly easy to throw together.
2-I could get a lot of "bang for my buck" by roasting two chickens.
3-There would be plenty of food.
And the main reason 4-LEFTOVERS!!! LOL I love roasted chicken leftovers! The possibilities for meals are endless!
My friend, who has a membership to Sam's Club, found these two beauties at 5 lbs. each for a total of $10!!! That's a steal! These chickens turned out so delicious! They were so unbelievably moist and the flavor was just delicious! I had lots of Thyme in my garden so I knew I wanted to do something with that...and lemon always pairs so nicely with Thyme. I am going to give you the recipe as I did for the two chickens, but you could certainly half it...or not so you can have the yummy leftovers. ;o)

Lemon Thyme Garlic Roasted Chicken

(recipe from the kitchen of Liesl)

2 5lb Chickens

8 Lemons (6 cut in half and 2 cut into thin slices)

10 Whole Garlic Cloves

LOTS OF THYME

Garlic Salt

Fresh Cracked Pepper

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Place chickens in a large roaster. Stuff the cavities of each of the chickens with two lemons (that would be 4 lemon halves for each bird). Stuff 3 Garlic cloves into each bird as well as a handful of fresh Thyme. Repeat process: 2 more lemon halves, 2 garlic cloves, and more fresh Thyme. Sprinkle tops of Chicken with Garlic Salt and Fresh Cracked Pepper. Using the remaining slices of lemon, spread them over top of the chickens. Lay some extra Thyme springs on top of the lemon slices...this gives the skin a nice flavor.

Cover the pan with aluminium foil and place in oven for 3 hours. After the 3 hours is up, remove the aluminium foil and raise oven temp to 350 degrees. Cook chicken another 20 minutes just to get the skin a bit crispy. Chicken should reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees. Remove chicken from oven and let it sit for about 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

FYI-this flavor combination makes a GREAT gravy, so I highly suggest making a gravy out of its drippings.

Lemon Thyme Garlic Gravy

(recipe from the kitchen of Liesl)

2 Tablespoons Butter

2 Tablespoons Flour

2 Cups of the Chicken drippings

In a large saucepan melt butter. Whisk flour into butter creating a Roux. Once flour and butter are combined, slowly whisk in chicken drippings. Whisk until thickened.

I wanted to take a moment and let all you know that these great photos were taken by Kristen Wiltse. She is a great photographer! And of course that is why she was invited over for Easter dinner (JK) ... because every food blogger wants a great photographer around!!! LOL