Apple Roasted Chicken

Apple Roasted Chicken is full of scrumptious sweet and smoky flavors. It's a super cozy meal that's both impressive enough for a dinner party, and easy enough for a busy weeknight.

Cooler weather welcomes cozy, comforting meals with long cooking times that have delicious aromas wafting through the house.

With a rich foundation of caramelized onions, apples and bacon, this roasted chicken with bacon fits the bill perfectly.

This recipe is fairly simple to put together and presents beautifully. After the chicken is carved, the succulent meat soaks up the sweet-smoky, buttery sauce, making every bite nothing short of amazing - it's always a crowd pleaser.

Ingredient Notes

• whole chicken - If possible, a pasture-raised chicken is best. When selecting a fresh chicken, choose one with little to no odor.
• bacon - My favorite bacon is applewood smoked, and it's especially good in this recipe.
• hard apple cider - This is apple cider with alcohol, and its flavor is sharper than a non-alcoholic cider. I used the hard cider, but you can use either one.
• apples - Some of the best apple varieties for cooking are Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Pink Lady, Jonathan, Crimson Gold - they are all usually crisp, tart, and hold their shape well when cooked. Use your favorite or a combination. I usually use Granny Smiths.
• onion - Try to choose firm onions that are heavy for their size.
• fresh thyme - Thyme has a subtle lemony flavor that's delicious with the apples. Other fresh herbs like rosemary or oregano or marjarom would also be lovely. If you'd like to use dried thyme, use about ⅓ the amount.
• garlic - Look for firm heads of garlic without any soft spots or green shoots, which are an indication it's old and likely bitter. (Pro tip: If there are green shoots in your garlic cloves, slice them in half, lengthwise, and remove the green root with the tip of a knife. The rest of the clove should still be good.)
• unsalted butter - It's usually best to cook with unsalted butter, so you can better control the final amount in the recipe.

How to Make it

- Preheat the oven to 475°F. Place a paper towel on a plate and set it aside.

- In a large, ovenproof skillet, over medium heat, cook the bacon until it's crispy, about 3 minutes per side. Turn the heat off, remove the bacon, and place it on the paper towel-lined plate to drain. Crumble it once it's cool enough to handle. Leave the grease in the pan!

- Turn the heat to medium and add the sliced onions to the skillet with the bacon fat, and sauté until golden. Add the garlic and sliced apples, mix, and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the thyme and crumbled bacon, and then pour the cider over everything. Simmer for about 3 minutes. Add the butter and once it's melted into the sauce, season to taste with salt and pepper.

- Season the inside and outside of the chicken with salt and pepper, and then truss it with butcher's twine. (Here's how.) Place it breast side up on top of the apple mixture. Spoon some of the liquid from the sauce over the chicken.

- Place the skillet in the preheated 475° F oven and roast until the chicken is golden brown, about 20 minutes. Remove the chicken from the oven and reduce the heat to 350°F.

- Very carefully, use tongs, heat resistant cooking gloves or your hands, flip the chicken over so it's now breast side down. Try to arrange the apples under the chicken so the legs are higher than the breasts. If that's tricky, just use a crumbled piece of foil.

Recipe Tip: The reason we want to tip the legs up is to allow the juices to flow down into the breasts to keep them from drying out. For the best results, the chicken should be in this position for roasting and resting.

- Place the skillet in the 350°F oven and continue to roast until the internal temperature is 155 degrees F - this should take about 45 minutes. You'll also know it's done when the juices run clear and the legs should move easily when it's done. Baste the chicken with the cider-butter mixture every 15 minutes or so.

* CARRYOVER COOKING * The chicken will continue to cook for several minutes once it's removed from the oven. This is called carryover cooking. During this time the internal temperature can increase from about 5°F to 10°F. Ultimately, the internal temperature will be about 165°F.

- Wait at least 15 minutes before carving, to allow the juices to settle.

Variations

• Other fruits. You can also make this with firm pears, like Bosc or Comice. If you want to make this during the summer months, peaches or nectarines would be delicious.
• Add lemon and paprika. If you want a different flavor profile, lemon and paprika are flavors that would deliciously complement the chicken and apples.
• Sans bacon. If you'd like to make it without bacon, use olive oil to cook the onions.
• Cut-up chicken on the bone or boneless chicken. To cut down the roasting time, you can use either cut-up whole chicken, or boneless skinless chicken breasts.

Serving Suggestions

Apple roasted chicken is fantastic with crispy roasted potatoes, roasted garlic brown rice or roasted carrots or parsnips. They will soak up any excess sauce in the plate.

I also like adding a salad to this meal. A grapefruit salad with avocado, and a fall persimmon salad would both be lovely with it.

Can you make it ahead?

Apple roasted chicken is best made as close to serving time as possible. There's nothing quite like it directly out of the oven. You can, however, prep the onion and bacon as early as a day ahead to save some time.

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I hope you love this as much as my family and I do.

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