Chicken From the Oven

This is always a favorite. A very simple but tasty dish. Tonight I prepared it with a few oven baked potatoes and a dandelion salad.









Ingredients:

1 whole chicken
mustard (tonight I used horseraddish instead)
ground paprika
handful twigs of fresh rosemary
handful twigs of fresh thyme
freshly ground salt and pepper
1 whole lemon


Instructions:

Preheat the oven to about 425 F.

Wash the chicken inside out and dry with kitchen paper or a towel. Season the inside with a lot of freshly ground salt and pepper. Squeeze some lemon juice inside. Fill the chicken with the rosemary and thyme. Squeeze some more lemon juice inside and leave the squeezed lemon pieces in the chicken. Really stuff the chicken with the herbs and lemon!

Place the chicken in an oven-proof dish. Rub the mustard on the whole chicken. Cover all the spots. Sprinkle paprika, freshly ground salt and pepper around the whole chicken to cover all the skin. Don't be shy using enough of all the ingredients!

Place the chicken into the preheated oven. Bake for about 40 minutes, then turn the chicken upside down. If you're doing some potatoes as well, add them now into the same dish as the chicken. Use some salt and pepper and maybe some fresh thyme on the potatoes as well. Then bake everything for another 40 minutes.

Dandelion greens are a bit bitter but very nice prepared with good balsamic vinegar, olive oil, small pieces of bread and bacon that have been fried in a pan first, and freshly ground salt and pepper.