A Delicious Amish Recipe

Last week I tried this recipe from a book called "New Recipes from Quilt Country" by Marcia Adams. I don't actually have her book, I got the recipe out of "Food and Wine Magazine's Best of the Best" 1998 edition. But now I'm tempted to try to find her book because this recipe was so delicious and for what it is, very easy!

The recipe is as follows and the photos at the end are how mine turned out. By the way, I was cooking for 10 people so I doubled the recipe. The parentheses are my comments.

1 free-range roasting chicken, approx. 4 lbs

2 handfuls fresh thyme (the recipe says optional but I can't imagine not using it!)

1 large onion, cut into chunks

4 red-skinned pootatoes, 2 inches in diameter, sliced 3/4 inch thick (I wasn't this specific, I just used as many potatoes as I thought my family would eat and cut them thin enough to cook as fast as the chicken.)

6 cloves garlic, skin on

1/2 cup or one stick butter

1 cup chicken stock or canned broth

1/2 lemon, seeded

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Rinse and clean the chicken well and pat dry with a paper towel. Place the chicken breast side up in a shallow 15 by 12 inch greased pan.

Seperate the skin from the breast meat with your fingers and insert a liberal amount of thyme between the two. Place another handful of thyme inside the cavity.

Scatter the onion chunks, potato slices, and garlic cloves around the chicken.

In a messuring cup, heat the butter and chicken stock together in the microwave; pour over the chicken and vegetables.

Squeeze the lemon half over the chicken and place the lemon in the cavity of the chicken along with the thyme.

Add salt and pepper to the chicken and vegetales to taste.

Bake the chicken for 30 minutes , then turn it over, back side up, and baste with the pan juices. Lower the heat to 350 degrees and bake the chicken 20-30 minutes longer, basting occasionally, or until a meat thermometer inserted into the thigh registers 180 degrees and the potatoes are tender.

Remove the chicken from the oven and, keeping it covered, allow it to rest for 10 minutes. Carve and serve with the vegetables and pan juices. (I think that I ended up cooking it a little longer than this to get it browned to my liking.)