Streets of Rage: Roast Chicken

The once peaceful city you grew up in has transformed over night. Corruption can be found everywhere throughout the city. As a police officer, you notice what is happening and want to quickly fix the city to the way it once was. You rush to your superiors with what you believe is a perfect plan to take down the leader of the organization responsible for the decay. Quickly, they turn down your plan and state that you should not worry; that things were being taken care of. A few days pass and nothing has changed beyond the rapidly rising crime rate. You realize the corruption has spread within your precinct. Quickly you turn to your two closest buddies and explain to them your plan. They agree that this plan would be the perfect thing to take out this criminal organization. You head to the high-ups and tell them you are done and hand them your badge. You walk out before they can respond and you know this is going to be a very long road to bringing peace to the city.

Streets of Rage is actually a game I had never touched until about two years ago. My husband and I had been listening to a podcast about old Sega games. While out shopping one day we decided to pick up a mega collection of old Sega games for our PS3. My husband was super excited because he grew up playing on Sega consoles. I, on the other hand, never owned a Sega console. All these game (for the exception of a few Sonic games) were completely new to me. One evening we decided to try out Streets of Rage. I thoroughly enjoyed myself because every so often you need to play a game like this. It is a pretty simple concept – move through the level and beat up some punks. I find it thoroughly entertaining that this game actually has two different endings and one of them can only be reached in the 2-player mode. I guess sometimes the prospect of being the most powerful person in the city is just so much better than peace.

Of course while trying to free the city from corruption, one will get hungry. What better meal than a whole roast chicken that your enemies will happen to leave for you to enjoy? I would certainly recommend sharing it with you partner in crime; a whole chicken is a bit much for one cop! This recipe is actually pretty simple, doesn’t require much prep time or much babysitting. Basically we dress up the chicken, cook for two hours, and then enjoy! So let’s get this recipe started.

Servings: 4
Ingredients:
1 whole chicken
1 garlic bulb
1 lemon
2 sprigs of thyme
3 sprigs of rosemary
salt
pepper

The morning before you plan on cooking the chicken, take it out of its packaging, and remove all the extra bits (giblets) inside the cavity. Place the chicken on the pan you will be cooking it in. Salt and pepper the entire chicken, outside and inside. Put the chicken in the refrigerator, uncovered, for at least 6 hours.

Take the chicken out of the refrigerator. Use a paper towel to clean up any liquid/ blood that might have ended up on the pan while it rested.

Put about half of the herbs into the cavity of the chicken. Preheat an oven to 375°F.

Take the lemon and poke it several times with a fork and cut to the end off. Add both halves of the garlic bulb and lemon into the cavity. If there is still a bit of room add additional herbs to the cavity.

Bake, breast side up, for 1 ½ – 2 hours (internal temperature should read at 180°F). Remove from the oven and cover with aluminum foil. Let it rest for 10 minutes.