Orange Five-Spice Roasted Chicken

Because it's right around the corner from my apartment, I often shop at Hannaford. They put out a monthly magazine that used to be free with a $25 purchase, but I think they pretty much just give it to you for the asking nowadays. Anyhow, I try to remember to pick up a copy each month to check for coupons, etc., and in last month's, there was a page talking about different spices. One was Chinese Five Spice, and this is what they said ...

"CHINESE FIVE-SPICE POWDER: A distinctive blend familiar to fans of Chinese roast pork (where it's the dominant flavor), the five refers to licorice-like star anise and fennel, cinnamon-like cassia, floral Szechuan peppercorns, and fragrant cloves.  You know how roasted chicken tastes like ... chicken?  Roasted chicken with Chinese five-spice powder rubbed under and outside the skin tastes like an Asian gastronomic feast."

Seriously, don't you want to run out right now to get some five-spice? Lucky for me, the reason that blurb caught my eye in the first place is that a cousin visiting with my sister a while back left her with not one, but two different containers of five-spice for me. I was thinking that was a little odd (nice, but odd) and that it was more than I would use in a lifetime, but now I'm rethinking that!

This chicken was super juicy and delicious, and now I'm left wondering how the leftovers might translate to a chicken salad.  

INGREDIENTS :
1 roasting chicken
4 T butter, softened
1 lg orange
1 T Chinese Five-Spice
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 t salt
1/2 t black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 450
2. Wash your orange well to remove any pesticides and/or wax, then dry well and zest over the butter
3. Squeeze 1T of juice from the orange over the butter as well
4. Stir together the butter/orange mixture, adding to it the five-spice, garlic, salt and pepper to create a sort of compound butter
5. Loosen the skin from the chicken and rub the butter mixture all over the chicken underneath the skin, rubbing any residual butter over the outside of the chicken to coat
6. Cut up the orange, squeezing the juice into the cavity of the chicken and stuffing the orange inside
7. Roast for about 20" at 450' to crisp the skin, then reduce to 325 and continue for another hour or so until cooked through (If a chicken comes with a thermometer, I usually cook it for another 15"-20" beyond the pop.)
8. Remove chicken to serving platter, loosely tent with foil and let rest for about 15" before carving
9. To the pan drippings, whisk in a few tablespoons of butter and flour, bringing up to a boil to thicken into a gravy (optional - pour through strainer)
10. To carve, first remove the legs and wings, then cut straight down along one side of the breast bone and make another cut from the bottom in toward the bottom of your first cut so you can pull off the entire breast
11. Transfer chicken breast to your cutting board or platter and slice it so that everyone gets a piece of skin with their chicken.
12. Drizzle with gravy

I like to roast my chicken over veggies instead of a rack.

Breast removed as indicated above.