A whole baked chicken is not hard to prepare.  Some are afraid to tackle it, but I assure even the most timid among us, baking a chicken is more of a challenge for the oven than it is for us klutzes.

Battle Plan:

Yup, first you have to get a chicken.  If you feel drawn toward those nice, plump roasting chickens you see in the supermarket, more power to you! They do make a fine and tasty meal.

If, however, your budget steers you instead toward those smaller, scrawnier whole frying chickens with a cheaper price tag, don’t despair. They make a nice little meal, too. 

Generally, you can judge accordingly when it comes to amount of chicken:

• 1-2 people, one frying chicken
• 2-4 people, two frying chickens
• 4-6 people, three frying chickens
• One plump roasting chicken (say, 4 lb. size) would adequately feed up to five people.

I generally like to buy a whole chicken fresh and cook it within 24 hours, but you can buy whole chickens frozen – or freeze them – once you get them home from the store.

If you are thawing a frozen chicken, don’t let it sit out on the counter all day. Thaw in the refrigerator or quick thaw in a bowl of cold water. You can also use the “defrost” feature on your microwave oven.

Remove the plastic wrap from the chicken and rinse it well under cold running water in the sink. If it’s a big chicken, put it in a strainer (colander) if you are worried about fumbling it in a not-emaculate-kitchen sink.

While you’ve got it under the faucet, reach inside and dig out of the crevices that gunky junk that, I’m told, is clotted blood. Eww, huh! Whatever it is, scrape it out and rinse the inside of the chicken thoroughly.

Always with cold water, klutzes…you want to keep that flesh at a nice safe temperature prior to cooking.

Now, pat the bird dry with paper towels or skip this part if you just want to get the thing into the pan. I have cooked countless chickens over the years that were both dried first and left wet.  I’ve yet to have anyone shriek at me over the dinner table, “Oh my God, you baked this chicken without drying it off, didn’t you!”

Trust me, it won’t happen.

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