Yankee Girl's Southern Roast Chicken With Cornbread Stuffing

Total Time: 2 hrs 30 mins Preparation Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 2 hrs

Ingredients

• Servings: 5
• 1 (5 lb) whole chickens
• 4 cups day-old cornbread, broken into pieces (i use the recipe on the alber’s cornmeal box, except i use buttermilk instead of regular milk, and i)
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh italian parsley
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons old bay seasoning
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

Recipe

• 1 preheat oven to 350.
• 2 rinse chicken, remove excess fat from around the cavity and pat dry.
• 3 rub inside and outside of chicken with one teaspoon old bay seasoning and set aside.
• 4 spread corn bread pieces in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes, or until they dry out a bit – not much longer than that.
• 5 combine onion, celery, fresh herbs, pepper, olive oil and 1 teaspoon of the old bay seasoning in a mixing bowl.
• 6 when the cornbread crumbs are toasted enough, dump the hot bread into the celery onion mixture and combine.
• 7 place the chicken in the bottom of a small roasting pan that has a cover.
• 8 stuff the cavity and the sides of the chicken with the stuffing – you need to separate the skin a bit from the sides to get the stuffing in next to the leg/thigh pieces – also stuff some into the neck cavity.
• 9 tie the legs together to hold the stuffing in with kitchen twine.
• 10 drizzle the chicken with oil, sprinkle with salt and a little more old bay if you like.
• 11 cover the pan and roast at 350 for about 1 and 1/2 hours, then uncover, insert a thermometer close to the leg/thigh joint without touching the bone- you're looking for it to read 180 degrees- it will be very close at this point.
• 12 roast a little longer uncovered until chicken is nicely browned and the thermometer reads 180 degrees.
• 13 allow the chicken to rest about 10 to 15 minutes before carving- this step keeps it juicy.
• 14 enjoy.