Whole Baked Chicken

This is a super easy, throw everything in the pot, put it in the oven and forget about it meals!
And its one of my go-to's and my families favorites. I probably cook this at least once every 2 weeks.

I start by rinsing a whole chicken, taking any of the insides out if there is any and place in a baking or roasting dish breast side up.  I cut up and place around onion, carrots and bell peppers (you could also do potatoes to make it a complete meal). I season it with olive oil, juice of one lemon, worsteshire, salt, lemon pepper, garlic powder, red pepper and cinnamon. Might sound crazy to put cinnamon on chicken but trust me! I add water to the pot, so that the water comes up about half way up the vegetables. The water plus the vegetables will create a natural gravy.
When you ask my kids what is their favorite thing to eat, they will most likely tell you chicken(or roast), rice and gravy!
I bake it at 350 for 2 hours.
Your house will smell divine!


Here is what it will look like when you pull it out of the oven.

Here is how I served my girls:

 

My plate, just no rice so that it is low carb:

 

My husbands plate

 

Ok, so being that I am from south Louisiana, we eat everything over rice. Hence my kids loving rice and gravy. This is how I was raised and now how I cook for my kids-its what I know.
So here is how I make my rice.

Syrian Rice:

Start by melting a spoonful of ghee (clarified butter you can find in the mediterranean section of your grocery store)

 

Once melted, add two handfuls of vermicelli

Stand at the pot, do not walk way and continuously stir the vermicelli until it is golden brown. It will burn quickly, if you don't watch it, hence why you have to keep stirring it.
Once it is browned, add your rice. You can use brown rice, white rice...Just remember the water to rice ration is 2:1. 1 cup of rice=2cups of water.

 

Bring rice up to a boil.

Let boil until water is 3/4 way cooked

 

Then cover it 3/4 of the way and turn fire down to medium-low.

 

When water is fully cooked out, cover and turn to low. let finish steaming for another 15mins.
I often leave mine covered and on low until we are ready to eat if its relatively soon. Or you can just turn it off and leave it covered.  When you are about to serve, stir the pot, fluffing the rice.


Tonight we had a cucumber salad to go with our dinner.  Cucumbers are my kids favorite raw veggie and also one of mine, so we eat a lot of cucumbers in our house.
This salad was pretty simple and consisted of cucumbers, red onion, tomatoes, 1/2 an avocado and fresh basil.

I seasoned it with a little olive oil, juice of 1/2 a lemon, splash of red wine vinegar and Tony's.

Hope you enjoyed this recipe.
Its definitely super easy, a go to, can prep ahead, throw in the oven and forget about it....and your house will smell amazing!
Enjoy!