Ever have dishes that you want to replicate at home, know they would probably be simple when you got down to it but it just intimidated the heck out of you? Roasted chicken was one of those dishes.
I acutally attempted two of them within a one week period and the first one was a bust. I cooked it in the crock pot and it just fell apart into mush and was non-flavorful. Not to be deterred, I decided to try again. Success.
Give yourself about two hours of it actively roasting in the oven and roast any vegetables you want in the pan with the chicken. I had originally grabbed a butternut squash at the store to roast with the potatoes and carrots but got to the check out and it rang up for $16. Ummm… I don’t know about you, but I just couldn’t bring myself to pay $16. So I nixed that vegetable and ended up buying 2 butternut squash this past weekend for less than $5 because they were major on sale this week. Sometimes you just gotta hold out. Like waiting for the 75% Kate Spade sales. Huh what? Did I just type that out loud?
Moving on… eat your first serving with your roasted veggies and save the rest to throw in a pot pie (which I also did last week), a hunk of a leg with a mound of mashed potatoes or toss it in a soup to celebrate the coming of fall.
Whole Roasted Chicken
adapted from Against All Grain
Ingredients:
Whole Chicken (around 5 pounds)
1 bunch sage
1 sprig rosemary
1 lemon, halved
6 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
Salt and pepper
Olive Oil
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 Tbsp fresh sage
1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
6 large carrots, peeled and cut into pieces
6-8 red potatoes, quartered
1/2 onion, sliced
Directions:
Remove your giblets from your chicken, discard or save for a later use, like a broth. Rinse your chicken, pat dry and let sit out at room temperature for one hour.
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
Stuff the cavity of your chicken with your bunch of sage, rosemary, lemon and garlic cloves. Sprinkle as much salt and pepper as you like into the cavity of the chicken. Tie legs together with kitchen string.
In a bowl combine two Tbsp of your olive oil and your Dijon mustard, chopped sage, chopped rosemary, lemon juice, minced garlic, thyme, sea salt and pepper. Rub all over bird and under skin.
Toss your chopped roasting vegetables in a bowl with some olive oil and spread vegetables on bottom of roasting pan. Top with chicken.
Place chicken in oven and roast for 15 minutes, reduce heat to 350 degrees and roast for another 1 1/2 hours or until chicken is cooked through.
Remove chicken, place on platter and cover for 15 minutes. Slice and serve with your vegetables.
Enjoy!
The Highlands Life 