Delicious and Healthy Roasted Chicken Recipes

When it comes to losing fat and building muscle, there is no better way to accomplish these goals than by removing as much processed food as possible from your diet and replacing it with fresh, whole ingredients such as meat, vegetables, fruit, eggs, nuts, and seeds. Learning some basic recipes that incorporate these elements is the best way to improve your health.

Whole chickens are great because they are cheap, tasty, and easy to cook. With these simple roasted chicken recipes you can start eating healthy as soon as tonight!

The Ingredients

Whole chicken
Lemon
Salt and pepper

The Recipe

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Rinse the inside and outside of the chicken in cool water and pat dry. Sprinkle salt and pepper all over the inside and outside of the bird.
Stab the lemon several times with a knife and place inside the bird's cavity. This will ensure that it stays juicy and doesn't dry out during roasting, as well as giving it a great flavor.
Place the chicken in a roasting pan and place in the center rack of the preheated oven.
Now you can just wait until dinner is ready, no basting necessary! The chicken will be done in about 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or when the internal temperature of the thigh reaches 180 degrees F.

The Variations

Above is the "master recipe," but you can tweak this basic blueprint to end up with literally hundreds of different types of roasted chicken! Here are a few ideas of things you can do to spice things up and add in a little variety.

Chop up some onion and add it, along with a couple garlic cloves, into the chicken's cavity. Similarly, you can add some dried or fresh herbs such as rosemary and thyme into the cavity. The more "goodies" you can fit in, the more flavor will soak into the bird as it cooks.
Pour or rub some olive oil or fat all over the bird before you stuff it. This will add in more flavor and help to keep it juicy while it cooks.
Pat the chicken all over with a dry rub before throwing it in the oven. Again, the sky's the limit with these roasted chicken recipes!