Chicken

One of my favorite places to grocery shop is Earthfare - and one of the things I love most is the freebies they give away. Last week I got a coupon for a free whole chicken, a bag of baby carrots and mashed potatoes. Yay...except I have never cooked a whole chicken in my life. I decided to go ahead and cook it for lunch today and I found what appears to be a good recipe for a rub.

I do not, I repeat, not, like handling raw meat of any kind. If you feel that way, too, then these are a must in your kitchen. I bought 1,000 of them at Sams for about $5.00, I think.

I put on my raw meat touching gloves and opened up the chicken. I have heard that you must remove any giblets from the inside, so I looked in and saw something really nasty. According to the label on the front, some of my giblet parts may be missing - bummer ;) Anyway, I had at least some spare parts, but I could not bring myself to reach in and touch them, so I held the chicken over the trash can and jiggled it.

Something that looks like a liver fell out, and just about did me in. Here it is - if you have a sensitive stomach, now would be a good time to scroll down...just sayin.

Having de-gibleted the chicken carcass, I rubbed it liberally with the rub I made and plopped it into the disposable pan I found shoved way back in the dead space of a cabinet. Thank God because I hate washing pans that have meat stuff stuck on them. I usually use aluminum foil to cover the pans, but I had a feeling that foil would not hold the juice of this bad boy...or girl...I guess chickens are girls, right?

Before I put it in the oven I smashed 4 cloves of garlic with my mallet and placed them gingerly into the "cavity" of the chicken. Here's what she looked like all fixed up

Into the oven she went. It smells good, but we shall see how it comes out. I will let you know.