Chicken… There are so many ways to cook chicken. Roasted chicken is something that is great for this time of year because it takes enough time in the oven to really warm up your kitchen. Sometimes I choose the lazy way to make a whole chicken, which is just to throw it in a crock pot, but it really does make a difference to take the time and roast it in the oven. If a chicken is cooked correctly, than the skin will be nice and crisp and the meat with be nice and tender.

I have one goal anytime I cook a chicken, maximum juiciness!  No matter which way I cook it, I ALWAYS use an herbed butter to make it very juicy. You want to place the herbed butter between the skin and the meat to get the best results, but if I have extra, then I always put it on top of the skin also.

If you are roasting the chicken in the oven, you want to make sure the temp is set at 350, and allow a cooking time of 20 minutes per pound.  You also want to remove anything that may be inside the chicken before cooking, and rinse the bird out with a little bit of salt water.

Ingredients:

4 tbsp butter

1/8  tsp dried rosemary

1/8 tsp dried Thyme

½ tsp Garlic powder

Pinch of salt and pepper

¼ tsp parsley

4lb chicken

Preheat oven to 350.  Clean out chicken and rinse with some salt water. In a small bowl combine herbs and butter,  mix until incorporated. Then, gently massage the herb butter between the skin and meat. Place in the oven for 20 minutes per pound of chicken. Make sure to baste the chicken at least once half way through the cooking process. Remove from oven when it’s completely cooked and let rest for about 5 minutes to give it time to redistribute the juices. Then, carve and eat J

I am constantly trying to find more healthy versions of the foods that I love so much. I have a serious soft spot for fried chicken, but the amount of fat and calories in it are enough to give me a heart attack just thinking about. I do always use boneless, skinless chicken breasts, but the act of frying them in oil still makes it super unhealthy. I have seen many recipes for coating the chicken in other ingredients besides bread crumbs, but the one that I love the most is a pretzel coated chicken. Coating the chicken breasts in pretzels is unique because there are so many different types of pretzels, and yesterday when I was feeling super healthy, I stumbled across a whole wheat pretzel and decided to give those a try.

This recipe is just as easy to make as regular fried chicken, but it has 83 percent less saturated fat, and 54 percent fewer calories! 

Ingredients

4  4-ounce skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, beaten to an even thickness

2 egg whites

2 tablespoons honey mustard

1 1/2 cups pretzels, crushed

pinch of thyme

pinch of ground rosemary

pinch of garlic powder

nonstick cooking spray

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Place chicken onto a foil lined baking sheet that has been sprayed with nonstick cooking sheet. Finally, place baking sheet into the oven for approximately 15 minutes.