Roast Chicken with Root Vegetables

Roasting a chicken is an activity/meal that ranks right at the top of my list as a relaxing task and an incredibly satisfying & comforting meal. Add to that a good variety of root vegetables, and it is one big baking pan of goodness.

My thing with sharing recipes with all of you is by no means to show what a great cook I am. I am just a home cook who loves to cook. I came to cooking later in life, as the first 15 years of being with Mister Sive, he did almost all of the cooking. We will celebrate our 25th anniversary this January. Easy math. It has been a busy 10 years of cooking. I just love sharing recipes with all of you. I try to be a fairly organized & methodical cook so there are things I have made time and again that I really want to share with you. Roasting a chicken is one of those things. You get the basics down, and then variations happen after. One of you faithful readers, Wendy, recently asked me about roasting a chicken. I wrote a post shortly after I started this blog, so I think it might be time for another variation. Here we go.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. I try and use a 4 to 5 pound chicken. Rinse chicken and dry with a paper towel. Salt and pepper both the inside the bird and the outside. Cut a garlic in half, as well as a lemon. Insert all of this into the cavity. Next chop up several onions, as well as your favorite type of small potatoes. I like Yukon Gold on most occasions. Peel carrots, parsnips, turnips, rutabaga–really whatever variation of root veg you like or can find. Cut into pieces a similar size to the potatoes you just cut up, so they cook at somewhat the same pace. Put all of the above in a roasting pan, mix all together with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Liberally rub olive oil on the chicken and liberally season with salt & pepper too.

Roast in the oven for an hour and 15 minutes, occasionally mixing around things so the bottom layer does not burn. Test the chicken so temp reads 160. If it is not quite there, roast a tad longer. Once the meat has reached that temperature, take the chicken out of the pan, place on a plate or platter and cover with aluminum foil to rest for 10 minutes. Turn off oven, but keep the pan of goodies still in to keep things warm. Once the chicken has rested, arrange all the root vegetables and potatoes on the platter with the chicken. You are ready for a comforting feast.