Roast Chicken With Fruit and Pesto

Ingredients

• 1 cup apricot preserves or 1 cup peach preserves
• 12 cup snipped dried apricot
• 14 teaspoon ground ginger
• 23 cup purchased basil pesto
• 1 (5 lb) roasting chickens

Instructions

1. In a medium bowl stir together preserves, apricots and ginger.
2. Remove 1/3 cup of mixture and place in small bowl.
3. Stir in pesto; set aside.
4. Set aside remaining reserve mixture for sauce.
5. Rinse inside of chicken; pat dry.
6. Slip your fingers between skin and breast meat of bird.
7. Spoon some pesto mixture under skin and over breast meat.
8. Spread some pesto mixture into body cavity.
9. Rub remaining mixture over outside of chicken.
10. Twist wingtips under chicken.
11. Place chicken breast side up in a shallow roasting pan.
12. Roast uncovered in a 325F oven for one and 1/4 to 2 hours or until drumsticks move easily in sockets and chicken is no longer pink.
13. Let stand 10 minutes before carving.