Keto-Friendly Oven Baked Garlic Chicken

Can something really taste as good as it looks? Yes. Yes, it can. This is a perfect example. A little story for you... I have NEVER cooked a whole chicken in my life! Never. I had no idea what I was doing. When I took it out of its wrapper, I noticed an opening, which I'm assuming is the "back end" of the chicken. I peeked inside and saw a few little round red things. Completely grossed out at this point, I tell myself "Nope! Nuh-uh. Not going in there!" But then I remembered I'm doing this for my health and for my family's health. So I sucked up my queasies, rolled back my sleeve, and stuck my arm half-way up the chicken's a$$! *insert laughter* Seriously though, it was hard for me to do that. I ripped those suckers out of there and continued on with my recipe.

Proud of myself for what I had just accomplished, I then realized I had no idea how to "rub" seasonings on a raw chicken. Don't laugh at me, but I actually had to Google it. Yep. But hey, we all gotta start somewhere, right? So after I finally figured out how to seasoning this bad boy up, I gathered my ingredients and applied them to the chicken. I followed the directions to the recipe to the T, and I'm glad I did, because it was awesome!

While it was cooking, my entire house smelled like an Italian restaurant, garlicky and buttery. Mmm, just how I like it! When the timer went off, I couldn't wait to see how it turned out. I opened the oven and almost cried! It was the most beautiful cooked chicken I'd ever seen! I was so very proud of myself for creating this glorious piece of meat art! I just hoped it tasted as good as it looked!

I then cut into it to make sure it was cooked thoroughly, and proceeded to cut off all the meat to serve to my family. Again, I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't use Google this time, and as you can imagine, we had to chew carefully. *insert rolling on floor laughing hysterically emoji*. Fear not, hubby will be giving me a little lesson on properly de-meating a chicken for future whole chicken encounters. :) Anyways, this chicken was moist, tender, and loaded with buttery garlic flavor. So, so, so very good! I served it with broccoli in cheese sauce. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs whole chicken (I have a big family, so I used 5 lbs)

• 2 tsp sea salt

• 1/2 tsp black pepper

• 5 1/3 oz butter

• 2 garlic cloves, chopped

• Italian seasoning (optional... I used my favorite Italian seasoning grinder, about 2 tsp)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400*F.

2. Remove "insides".

3. Make small cuts all over the chicken.

4. Cut the butter into pieces and place in or near the cuts, same with the chopped garlic.

5. Add seasonings all over the chicken.

6. Bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until chicken is cooked thoroughly.