Roast Chicken with Apple

Roast Chicken with Apple is a great recipe because it is one of the rare examples of using fruit as a vegetable. If apples don't please you, use this as a basic recipe for how to roast a chicken.

In this recipe the apple becomes another vegetable to serve with the chicken. It adds a new dimension to the meals that you serve to either family or guests. When you eat this meal the apple sets off all the other vegetables served with it and gives a whole new taste to one part of your meal.
Submitted by David McCarthy, Australia

Ingredients

1 chicken (3 pounds or 1.4 kilograms roasting chicken
4 potatoes, large, peeled
4 apples, large, cored
2 tablespoons butter
4 sprigs fresh rosemary
seasonings to taste

Method

Using your fingers, slightly raise the skin from the breast area and work the soft butter into the gap between the breast and the skin.

Place rosemary into the body cavity. (The beautiful aroma will spread through the chicken as it cooks.)

Using a knife, slice open the thickest part of the leg and the thigh to assist full cooking.

Put chicken in an oiled roasting pan. Season. Roast in oven (350F or 170C) for about 1 hour 15 minutes. Arrange potatoes around the chicken

After 15 minutes add the apples.

This chicken meat will be very moist thanks to the butter melting into it.

Serve with a glass of cold dry Reisling.

Variations

Another method of serving the apples with the chicken is to core the apples; stand them on their side and slice through about 1/4 inch (6mm) slices to about 1/2 inch (12 mm) from the base. Place the apples into the oven when there are 30 minutes left to cook. The slices will flare apart giving a beautiful crown effect. This takes a little more preparation but results in less cooking time and adds an extra dimension to basic roast chicken recipe.

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