SMOKED PAPRIKA ROASTED CHICKEN

As soon as I acquired some smoked Spanish paprika, courtesy of my mother’s generosity at Penzey’s during my Minnesota visit, I immediately began searching my favorite food blogs for recipes in which to use it. This one, from Simply Recipes, won first place. It was easy to make, and man, was it good. Of course, I managed to eff it up slightly by forgetting the lemon juice in the spice rub and then sort of trying to sprinkle it on later, and maybe I didn’t get my chicken quite dry after washing it in Step 1, because I saw too much of the precious red spice goo dripping off after I applied it, but the end result was still delicious. My only sadness was that there was no way to get that delicious, sweet-smoky flavor inside the meat—it was all on the outside, which caused me to ingest rather more chicken skin than I usually like to. Still, I will definitely be making this again. And watch for more smoked paprika recipes in the weeks to come. I love that stuff!

2 tablespoons smoked paprika
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon softened butter
2 teaspoons garlic salt (or 1 teaspoon salt plus 1 teaspoon garlic powder)
½ teaspoon pepper
1 whole 4-to-5-pound roasting chicken

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Rinse the chicken with cold water and pat dry thoroughly with paper towels (if it’s wet, the seasoning won’t stick to it).

2. Mix together the paprika, honey, lemon juice, butter, garlic salt, and pepper. Spread over the entire surface of the chicken and place on a roasting rack or in a shallow baking pan.

3. Roast for approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes. You may need to adjust the time depending on how large your chicken is; the chicken is done with the juices run clear (not pink) when a knife tip is inserted into the breast and thigh, and the temperature is about 165–170 degrees for the breast and 180–185 degrees for the thigh.

Serves: 4–6
Time: 1½ hours