Marjoram Roasted Chicken & Apple-Pecan Stuffing

I found this chicken recipe several years ago in a magazine and have been making it ever since.  It is so moist and so delicious.  If you have issues with cooking a whole chicken or just don't feel like committing to that much meat, you can substitute bone-in, skin-on pieces of your choice.  To me, the best part about doing a whole one is the following meals you can get out of it.  Chicken and Dumplings anyone? 

Here's the recipe with my notes:

Marjoram Roasted Chicken


1/4 C butter, at room temp
3 Tbsp apple butter
1 Tbsp chopped fresh marjoram, plus 5 sprigs (I've subbed different dried herbs as well)
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 roasting chicken, 6 to 7 pounds
1 onion, halved
3 Fuji or Gala apples, halved and cored (I used a Gala and two Granny Smith tonight)

Preheat oven to 375.  

Combine butter, apple butter, chopped marjoram, salt and pepper; reserve.

(I'm not this messy, I swear - The Girl was the stirrer.)

Place chicken in a roasting pan, breast side up; place onion and marjoram sprigs in cavity.  

Truss chicken, if desired.

Carefully separate skin from chicken breast. 

Spread some of reserved butter mixture on meat under skin. 

Pat skin down to smooth.

Rub remaining butter mixture over skin.

Place apples around chicken.

(If you won't be making gravy, or just want your apples to be firm, don't put them in until the last half hour.  Putting them in at the beginning will cause them to completely break down - which is delicious if you make gravy out of the drippings.  If you are wanting gravy, you'll want to add some water or chicken broth after the first hour of cooking.  I put in about 1 1/2 cups.)

Roast until meat thermometer inserted into thickest part of thigh, away from bone, registers 180, about 1 hour, 35 minutes, tenting with foil if browning too quickly.

(I covered mine with the roasting pan lid after the first hour.)

Transfer to platter.  

Let chicken stand 10 minutes before carving; discard onion and marjoram from cavity.  

Skim fat from pan juices; serve juices with chicken and apples.

At this point, if you want to make gravy, set your roasting pan over a medium-high burner, bring to a slow boil and add 2 Tbsp flour mixed with about 1/2 C water.

Whisk until thickened.

Serve over chicken.

Here's how I made my stuffing:

Apple-Pecan Stuffing

6 oz seasoned bread cubes (I used Mrs. Cubbison's corn bread stuffing cubes - any box brand will work)
1/2 C butter, melted
Diced celery
Chopped apples
Dried cranberries
Chopped pecans
1 1/2 C chicken stock (I like mine wetter than this, but it's a good starting point.  I also normally use at least half apple juice, but I didn't have any.)

Combine stuffing mix, celery, apples, cranberries and pecans.

Stir in melted butter.

Add chicken stock, juice or water and stir to combine.

Put into a lightly greased baking dish.

Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes; remove foil and bake for another 15.

We had ours with steamed broccoli and homemade applesauce.

As much as I LOVE fall food, it's really hard to photograph.  

Well, for me anyway.

It's all so brown and boring looking - plus, it's dark out when we're eating dinner now, which doesn't help with the picture taking.

But it tastes oh so good!

Here's dinner on my plate:

This was one of those, "Oh my gosh, this is so good" meals.  

Let me give you an example of how good the chicken is:

The Girl ate a few slabs of breast meat.
Then she ate a wing. 

Then she ate a leg. 
Then she ate more breast. 

If you're new here, she's three.

The Dad stopped her from eating chicken. 
I was afraid she was gonna get sick! 

I'm tellin' ya, it's good.