Perfectly Seasoned Chipotle Garlic Chicken

I love chicken almost as much as I love eggs.

When we were staying in a hotel for a week on one of my husband’s business trips, we happened to be staying at a hotel across the street from a grocery store.

While that might have seemed ideal, the fact that the hotel room we were staying in didn’t even have a microwave put a hamper on any creative cooking that I could have gotten up to while he was away.

Instead, we opted for quick dinners and got by simply by eating a chicken from the supermarket’s rotisserie every night.

Although those things are loaded with sodium, I felt full and satiated at the end of every night, even though that’s the only thing I ate all day, and the contrast between the white and dark meat helped satisfy my need for texture.

Since we’ve been home, I haven’t touched a store-bought rotisserie, but I have been buying up a lot of chicken and playing around with a few different spice mixes. This is by far my favorite (so far, at least!)

Ingredients:

-1 whole chicken (you can also use cornish hens!)
-1 tsp salt
-1 tsp garlic powder
-1/2 tsp chipotle
-1/2 tsp black pepper
-1/4 tsp onion powder
-1/4 tsp aleppo pepper (cayenne or paprika would also work well here!)
-Olive oil (for drizzling)

Steps:

1. Combine all the seasonings in a bowl and mix together. Set aside.
2. Preheat your oven to 350 F.
3. Clean your hen by pulling the gizzards out carefully (unless your chicken has already been pre-cleaned!) and rinse out the inside of the hen with cold water.
4. Sprinkle the outside of the hen with your seasonings. If you have any leftover, sprinkle it inside of the chicken.
5. Place the chicken in a roasting pan and drizzle it with oil. We used a chili-infused olive oil for an extra kick, but any type of oil will work here!
6. Place some water at the bottom of your roasting pan to ensure it doesn’t burn.
7. Place chicken in oven and cook for 1 hour. Check the temperature at the thickest part of the bird with a meat thermometer, and then cook for 15-30 minutes more, depending on how large your bird is.
8. I generally pull my bird at 160 and then let it rest for 5-10 minutes on the counter to reach 165 before slicing and serving. Making sure not to let your chicken let 165 before you pull it and giving it time to rest to allow it to come to temperature are some of my best tips to a juicy bird!

Enjoy! And remember that if you’re a bit shy on the spice, feel free to tone it down or omit the chipotle or cayenne entirely. Dip your finger in the spice and taste it before you sprinkle it on the chicken and make your own modifications to ensure it’s just the right level of spice and umami for you! Remember: your life, your rules!