Roasted Chicken with Spicy Orange Sauce

There's nothing like the sight of an open chicken cavity staring you straight in the face...

I thought I'd try something new in keeping with my nearly forgotten resolution of trying either new recipes or ingredients every week...

I've only roasted chicken several times in the past and now in an effort to be more frugal, will be roasting them more in the future since it's really not that hard to do. It's cheaper and the chicken lasts us for several days. Below, the ingredients for this new recipe.

which I got from the "Poor Girl Gourmet" cookbook.

I made a few modifications since I didn't have enough oranges to yield 2 cups of juice. I resorted to using some frozen ice cubes of calamansi juice (the fruit came from our backyard tree last summer and a few from a friend's neighbor). I thought the calamansi would give it a different kick.

The spicy orange sauce...

I found that it took a little more than an hour to roast my chicken. I ended up saving the carcass and using it to make stock the next day.

The juices from the oranges stuffed within permeated the chicken juices. It smelled quite fragrant and tasted even better with the spicy (and slightly tart) orange/calamansi suace over it.

Perfect Roasted Chicken with Spicy Orange Sauce
(pp 69-70 from "Poor Girl GOurmet" by Amy McCoy)

Roasted Chicken
1 (3-4 lb) whole roasting chicken
kosher  salt (I used sea salt)
Freshly ground black pepper

Spicy Orange Sauce
2 cups orange juice (I used one small orange and the rest were frozen calamansi juice cubes)
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp kosher salt (again, I used sea salt)
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
*I also threw in a dash of sweet paprika, which is not in this recipe

1. Preheat the oven to 400F.

2. Rinse the chicken and pat dry. Place in roasting pan. It's your choice if you want to use a rack or not. I didn't use a roasting rack.

Place the chicken in the oven with the breast side facing out, the legs toward the back of the oven, and roast until the skin is crispy and lightly browned, and when the chicken is pierced, clear juices run from it. This should take 55 min to 1 hour. In my case, a little bit more than an hour. Remove chicken from the oven and allow it to rest for at least 5 minutes before slicing.

3. While the chicken roasts, prepare the sauce. Combine the orange juice (calamansi), crushed red pepper flakes, honey, salt, and pepper in a medium saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Simmer until the sauce is reduced by 2/3 and has darkened to a deep, rich rust-like orange. This should take about 35-40 minutes. When it's time to serve the chicken, drizzle just a tiny bit of the sauce over the chicken.