Garlic & Pepper Infused Roasted Chicken

[seraphine7]

There's nothing like a nice roasted chicken for a Sunday dinner. This recipe is one of those recipes that gets compliments every time someone tries it. It's really simple to make and it goes great with Roasted Vegetables. Anything that you pair this chicken up with, is sure to taste fantastic!


Ingredients

1 Whole Chicken or 1 Chicken cut up (2-3 lbs)

To Make the Marinade:
4 Garlic Cloves
1/3 cup of Cilantro, or small portion of a bunch
1 tablespoons of Peppercorns (you can put less peppercorns if you don't prefer as much)
1/3 cup of GOOD Extra Virgin Olive Oil- the flavor the oil is important, so get a good one
2-3 Tbsp of white wine vinegar (you can add less if you do not prefer the taste of vinegar, you can even substitute with lemon or lime and it is also delicious)
Salt (to desired taste)
Adobo- any combination or brand of adobo that you prefer is fine (to desired taste)


Preparation

Combine all of the ingredients into a small processor. If you don't have a processor, you can also use a Pilon. If using a Pilon (Pestal & Mortar), first smash the garlic and the peppercorns together, then add the cilantro. Once all blended together add the olive oil and white wine vinegar. The marinade is not thick it has a loose consistency.

Once all the ingredients are ground together, add the salt to your preference. Taste and make sure to adjust the salt for flavor.
Marinade

After the marinade is the right salt content, its time to rub it on the chicken!

The most important part of putting the marinade on the chicken is, to make sure that you get your finger in between the skin and the meat and incorporate the marinade in those parts. The only way to make the chicken truly flavorful is to marinade between the skin and the meat! Delicately slip your fingers between the two and make sure to get all that good flavor in there. That makes for one juicy chicken!

Once all is marinated. put in a ziplock bag and leave it overnight. This makes the chicken taste so delicious!
Chicken, once marinated

Make sure that once you ready to cook the chicken you preheat the oven to 350. Also, please make sure that you take the chicken out of the refrigerator at least 45 minutes before baking and bring it to room temperature. You NEVER want to put a cold chicken to bake in the oven, it becomes tough before it becomes tender. Once at room temperature just lightly sprinkle the top of the chicken with adobo for a final touch. And into the oven it goes!

I leave my chicken in for about 3 hours uncovered, it seems long but the chicken is juicy and down right delicious once it comes out of the oven.
Dinner time!

Happy Cooking! The Gardening Chic