Mexican Style Roast Chicken
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Recipe type: Main Course
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 6+
 
I seasoned this oven-roasted chicken with salsa verde, cilantro, limes and cerveza, making the chicken perfect for tacos, enchiladas or any other Mexican-style meal.
Ingredients
Salsa Verde
  • 1 pound tomatillos
  • ½ of a lime
  • 1-2 jalapeño peppers
  • For a medium spicy salsa, add 1-2 serrano peppers
  • For a very spicy salsa, add ½-1 habañero pepper
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1-3 garlic cloves
  • ½ of a white onion
  • 1 bunch of cilantro
  • 1-2 Tbsp Canola oil
Oven-Roasted Chicken
  • 1 whole chicken
  • 2 Tbsp butter, softened
  • 2 Tbsp salsa verde
  • 2 Tbsp chopped cilantro
  • Dash of salt and pepper
  • 1 lime, sliced
  • 1 onion, cut in 8ths
  • 5-7 garlic cloves, peeled and left whole
Basting the Chicken
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil
  • ¼ cup beer
  • ¼ cup low-sodium chicken broth
  • 1 Tbsp chopped cilantro
  • 1 Tbsp salsa verde
Instructions
Salsa Verde
  1. Lightly coat a large pan with canola oil.
  2. Place the peeled garlic cloves, onion wedge, whole peppers and peeled and rinsed tomatillos in the pan.
  3. Cook the veggies on med-high for 15-20 minutes or until browned, flipping them so that they roast on each side. If they start to stick, add a splash of water into the pan.
  4. Place the cooked vegetables and the remaining ingredients into a blender and purée them until smooth.
  5. Cool the salsa to room temperature.
  6. Cover it with plastic wrap and keep it in the refrigerator.
Oven-Roasted Chicken
  1. Mix the butter, salsa verde and chopped cilantro in a bowl to form a paste.
  2. Rinse the chicken well and pat it dry with paper towels.
  3. Place it on a roasting pan and spread the salsa verde paste over the entire chicken, getting it in the cavity and under any flaps of skin.
  4. Stuff the chicken with lime slices, onion chunks and whole garlic cloves.
  5. Bake the chicken at 350 degrees for 1-2 hours (depending on the size of the chicken), or until the chicken is done. It usually takes roughly 20 minutes per pound but use a meat thermometer to ensure that the meat reaches a high enough temperature, which is a minimum of 165 degrees for poultry according to the USDA.
  6. For the last few minutes, you can increase the temperature of the oven to 450 degrees to brown the chicken at the end.
  7. If the chicken is getting too browned while cooking, cover it loosely with a piece of foil.
Basting the Chicken
  1. Baste the chicken every 15-20 minutes with the drippings to keep the meat moist.
  2. If there are not enough drippings, combine the olive oil, beer, chicken broth, salsa verde and cilantro to form a basting liquid.
Recipe by Itsy Bitsy Foodies at http://itsybitsyfoodies.com/mexican-style-roast-chicken/