I am a Honey Bee

All about my adventures with cooking, crafts, and travel

roast chicken

Chipotle Lime Honey Roast Chicken

chipotle-lime-honey-roast-chicken

Let’s talk Podcasts.

I am super behind the times and just ‘discovered’ them.

chipotle-lime-honey-roast-chicken_01

I know, I know. I am lame. But it’s true.

Still reeling from when John & Sherry quit blogging at Young House Love last year, but things are getting better now that they have a podcast.

I downloaded the Stitcher app on my phone and now I’m hooked. I have gone through all their podcast episodes, and now I’m discovering others.

I’m burning through the David Gregory Show, I listen to NBC’s Meet The Press too. I have added Chris Loves Julia to my favorites to check them out. Gilmore Guys… yes please!  I have been adding bunches and bunches to my queue.

Send me podcast recommendations!!!!

chipotle-lime-honey-roast-chicken_02

Anywho, it’s Tuesday… so it means Taco Tuesday.

So what am I doing posting a chicken?

I use the ‘Taco Tuesday’ loosely in this sense so that I can make cool dishes like this chicken that is loaded up with Mexican spices and flavor notes. Plus, it’s super cool to slice this chicken up and load it up on a taco.

I mean, I’m not telling you how to live your life and eat tacos, but it’s cool to change things up and have some roasted chicken in tacos. Give it a try so you don’t just eat the same ground beef tacos. Although I could eat them 24/7…

chipotle-lime-honey-roast-chicken_05 chipotle-lime-honey-roast-chicken_06

We get chicken whenever it’s on sale or when we go to Costco since we try to cook them up every weekend, or so. I think they are great for dinner and for whatever. My husband makes chicken salad all the time. He is working on perfecing his roasted chicken too. He plays around with spices, herbs, butter vs oil, temperatures. It’s quite fun to watch and taste his work.

But I took over chicken roasting duties recently to make this chicken.

It takes about 10 minutes to prep. Then another hour and a half of cooking, when it fills up your house with the best aromas. Let it rest for a bit- a must or all those delicious juices will come pouring out when you cut it. And then done. It’s done in under 2 hours which is perfect for a Sunday dinner.

I served our dinner with some fresh summer corn and a cous cous salad I quickly through together with some tomatoes, cucumbers, red cabbage, cilantro, and a lime based dressing.

chipotle-lime-honey-roast-chicken_03

The layered flavors of the spicy and smokey chipotles, zesty lime, and sweet honey make this chicken liven up your dinner tonight!

chipotle-lime-honey-roast-chicken_04

Chipotle Lime Honey Roast Chicken

Makes 1 Roast Chicken

Ingredients

  • 5lb whole chicken, giblets removed
  • 2 tablespoons adobo sauce from a can of chipotle peppers in adobo
  • 2 limes
  • 1/4 Cup honey
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced

Progress

  1. Preheat oven to 450F degrees.
  2. In a small bowl, mix together the adobo sauce, lime juice, honey, garlic.
  3. Carefully, lift the skin up from the breast by inserting your hands under the skin. Place about 2 Tablespoons of the adobo mixture under the skin of chicken. Massage the rest on the ski of the chicken. Generously sprinkle with salt and pepper.
  4. Roast for 20 minutes, then turn down to 375 for the rest of the cooking time.Baste every 20 minutes. If the skin of the chicken is getting too dark, or dry cover with foil for the remaining cooking time.
  5. Cook for 1 hour and 20 minutes, until the internal temperature is 160F.
  6. Let sit for 15-20 minutes prior to cutting.

 

 

 

 

Slow Cooker ‘Roast’ Chicken

You know when you have one of those moments of “well, like, duh!” because something you never considered before made perfect sense. Why didn’t I think of that moment. Well, that happened to me when I was hopping around on Julie of The Little Kitchen and I saw in her sidebar a recipe for ‘Whole Chicken in a Slow Cooker‘. I kept going “that makes sense! Why haven’t I thought of this? It has to be so good! I have to make it!!”

This was one of the juiciest chickens I have ever had (other was beer can chicken- OMG!). It was so moist, flavorful, and cooked perfectly. Any rub on the chicken would work, even just salt and pepper with some lemons in the mix. This is more about technique, not about the ingredients. Don’t want sweet potatoes- fine… just throw some fingerlings in there. I think the biggest thing to consider is how long to cook it. I would not do this on a week day since I am away from home for 10 hours. This would just fall apart too much then. I suggest this on a nice weekend when you want to relax and do nothing or if you have errands up to your eyeballs and you have no time to cook and just have dinner (almost) appear in front of you.

Slow Cooker ‘Roast’ Chicken

Serves 4

Ingredients

  • 2 onions
  • 2 large sweet potatoes
  • 4-5 carrots
  • 3 1/2 -4 1/2 pound whole roasting/frying chicken
  • Preferred seasoning blend

Process

  1. Remove giblets bag from chicken to discard and rinse entirely. Pat chicken dry completely with paper towels.
  2. Cut all vegetables in large pieces, such as carrots in 2″ long pieces, and the onion in 8 large wedges.
  3. Rub the chicken with your selected rub to completely coat it.
  4. Place onions, carrots and sweet potatoes inside the slow cooker to create a layer on the bottom. Then put chicken on top of the vegetables.
  5. Set slow cooker for 6 hours. Check the internal temperature of the leg, if it is 160 degrees F then it is done. If you used a chicken with a pop up thermometer then remove the chicken when it has popped.
  6. If you crock pot is broiler safe (consult your product information) then put the entire crock pot into the oven for 4-5 minutes. If your crock pot is not broiler safe then carefully remove the chicken and place on a glass baking dish or a large baking sheet. Allow the chicken to rest for 5-10 minutes prior to cutting.