Fig Roasted Chicken

My daughter loves whole roasted chicken.  She asks me to make it for her at least once a week.  For the adults in the house simple roast chicken is nice but can get boring so I experiment with different ways to cook the chicken to keep it interesting for us and still serve something my daughter will enjoy.  One of the ways I like to mix up the roasting is through the pan sauce by placing the chicken over different fruits, citrus, herbs and vegetables.  This recipe makes a beautiful, deeply flavored pan sauce. My butcher does the hard of breaking down the chicken for me. You are looking to cover some, but not all of the vegetables so that the sugars in everything can caramelize and create a deep brown sauce.  Be prepared to turn the pan 2-3 times and add some chicken stock to keep the sugars in the fruit from burning.

Ingredients:
1 3-4 lb whole roasting chicken, split in half and the backbone removed
1 sweet onion, sliced into 1/4 half moons
6 fresh figs, stems removed and split in half (or 8 dried mission figs, easier to keep on hand)
1 cup (approximately) of chicken stock
1 heaping tsp of cornstarch
Kosher salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 425. To the bottom of a roasting pan that is large enough to accommodate the ingredients without crowding and steaming the food, add the onions and figs in a single layer.  Place the chicken halves over the mixture and reposition the bottom layer to prevent burning.  Everything should be under or close to the chicken so that the juices can create a delicious sauce.  Season the skin of the chicken liberally with kosher salt.  Roast for 45-60 minutes, turning until the skin of the chicken is nicely browned and the chicken in cooked through to  an internal thigh temperature of 165.  If the skin of the chicken has reached temp before the chicken is cooked through, lower the heat.  Keep a nose and eye out for burning sugars and add liquid as needed to prevent burning but try not to dilute the sauce so much that it does not develop a deep brown color. I usually need to add about a 1/4 cup.  Remove the chicken from the pan to rest and add about 1 cup of chicken stock mixed with cornstarch.  Stir and return the sauce to the oven to heat for 5 minutes while the chicken cools. Slice and serve with the sauce.