Fennel Scented Chicken

My new Misto found for $7.99 at TJ Maxx! I've been wanting one of these for so long now! LOVE it!

Last night, when faced with the dinner hour, and knowing I had some fennel fronds and stalks left over from this, I did a bit of online research. I came up with this plan:

I took a whole frozen chicken from our freezer and did a quick thaw (this was around 1 o'clock. I filled the sink with water and put the chicken, still in it's wrapper, in. A couple of hours later, I took the chicken from its plastic wrapper and put it to soak in a big bowl filled with water. It was thawed & ready to go by 4:30!)

I peeled some taters & cut into 1/2-3/4" rounds. I sprayed my roasting pan with olive oil, set the potatoes in a single layer on the pan and began to deal with the fennel fronds & stalks. I just rough chopped some of the fronds & a stalk or two (I put the rest in a freezer bag to make a veggie stock out of later). I sprinkled the potato rounds with some fennel fronds, sprayed them down with some olive oil & then tackled the chicken.




I took the neck out of the cavity of the chicken, dried the bird off with one of my beloved flour sack towels (of course it was clean!) and sprayed it with olive oil, sprinkled & rubbed some garlic powder, turmeric, salt & pepper all over him, placed him on the bed of fennely potatoes and then threw a handful of chopped fennel stalk inside the cavity.

I had preheated the oven to 360 degrees so it was ready and waiting to welcome Mr. Bird with waiting arms. I set the time for 1 hour & 30 minutes & walked away.

I forgot to take a picture of the finished product but it was delicious!

In retrospect:

1) I could have probably used more fennel but didn't want to overwhelm the chicken with it.

2)We had to cook the bird a bit longer than the hour & a half since hubby came home and pulled out his handy dandy meat thermometer to be sure it had reached a safe temp. Probably closer to 2 hours I would say, though I didn't really pay attention once he set the thermometer to beep when the chicken was at the right temp.

3)The potatoes under the chicken had to be put back in the oven for another 30 minutes because they weren't quite done. There were enough cooked through though so that we were able to enjoy some with our meal.

4)A little green salad completed the meal!

5)I fly by the seat of my pants wayyy too often at dinner time but, somehow, it always works out ;) .