Crisp Roasted Chicken and Potatoes

I roasted a chicken on Sunday. It was a perfect fall day to roast a bird in the oven and the final product was quite tasty! I will write out, at the end of this post, how I went about preparing and cooking the bird. By far the hardest part was cutting out the back bone. I had never butterflied a whole chicken before and cutting through bone with shears, and hearing that crunching sound, was not pleasant. Chris actually stepped into the kitchen to cheer me on while I fought the urge to upchuck on the bird. But I cut through the bones and pulled the backbones out, so...I guess that's something to be proud of.
**Please note in the "after" photo that we served this with a jar of homemade apple sauce! Yay!**

















Crispy Roast Chicken and Potatoes:

Ingredients:
1 roasting chicken, 3.5-4 lbs
1 cup kosher salt or 1/2 cup table salt
1/2 cup sugar
1.5 Ts olive oil

2.5 pounds roasting potatoes, Yukon Golds
3/4 ts salt
ground black pepper
1 Tb olive oil

Compound butter:
2 Tb butter
1 clove garlic, mashed
1 Tb dijon mustard
1 ts minced fresh thyme
ground black pepper

Brine chicken in solution of 1 cup kosher salt (or 1/2 cup table salt) and 1/2 cup sugar to 1/2 gallon water for 1 hour.

Pat chicken dry. Cut out backbone (try not to upchuck) to butterfly chicken. Flatten breastbone (just push down firmly).

Mix up compound butter. With your fingers, loosen skin across breast and as far down drumsticks as you can, do not tear skin. Spoon butter under skin and work across as much of the chicken as possible. Rub 1.5 Ts olive oil over chicken.

Slice potatoes 1/8" to 1/4" inch thickness. Salt and pepper lightly, toss with 1 Tb oil.

Line bottom of grilling pan with heavy-duty aluminium foil. Spread potato slices across pan evenly.

Place grilling rack over potatoes. Arrange butterflied chicken on top, folding drumsticks inward so they cover part of the breast. Roast at 500 degrees for 20 minutes, turn pan around, roast for another 20 minutes or until internal temperature in breast is 160.

Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly. Take grilling rack off, pat potatoes which will have a fair amount of oil on them. Potatoes may stick to foil, peel as much off as possible. Cut chicken up and serve with potatoes.