Caribbean Spice Roast Chicken

I made a chicken. A whole chicken. I feel like I've just added a notch to my cooking belt. When I saw this recipe on Nancy's website, it looked SO good, and I knew I wanted to make it. For a couple weeks I debated about whether I wanted to just try it with chicken breasts, or if I wanted to go for the whole chicken. Well, whole chickens were on sale this week at the grocery store, so that kind of made my decision for me. And this was good. It was super easy - except for the disgusting sticking my hand inside a chicken part. And apparently, I roasted the chicken upside down. But you know what? The package didn't have a top and bottom sign on it. How was I supposed to know there was a right side? My family seemed to enjoy it. I was surprised that I didn't dry it out. Ooh! And I got to break out my new digital meat thermometer! I was so excited!

Like the hand pies, this picture is pretty lousy, too. I had told everyone that dinner would be at 5:30 or so. Well, it was a beautiful day out, so the boy and I went for a motorcycle ride. And that made me a little late. So I was rushing to get everything out of the oven, into the car and over to my parents' house. And I almost forgot to take a picture - and if I had, I would've been SO upset! But, a bad picture is better than no picture, right? Right.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 tbsp. lime juice
2 oz. rum
1 tbsp. brown sugar
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. thyme
1 3 lb. chicken
1 tbsp. vegetable oil (I used EVOO)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325.

Combine lime juice, rum and brown sugar. Set aside.

Mix all dry ingredients.

Brush chicken with oil and coat with spices.

Bake 90 minutes, or until meat thermometer in thickest part of the thigh reaches 180.

Baste every 20 minutes with the sauce.

Yield: 4 servings:

Source: www.nancysrecipes.wordpress.com