Roast Chicken with Winter Vegetables

On Sunday night, the four of us sat down at the table to review and share our resolutions for the upcoming year. M listed some great ideas to keep things growing and positive a work, A listed THIRTEEN things to head into a spectacular year of being six years old, and C munched on a frozen banana to help his teeth, pondering the major accomplishments he, too, would undertake in 2012, such as crawling, eating solid foods, walking (oh dear), and talking.

My list was small but did include a promise to cook at least four new meals (interesting, local, and flavorful) a month. I'm pleased to say that, with the addition of the one you're about to read, I'll have already completed two new recipes, and it's only January 3rd!!

I don't often do roasts, mainly because, since we only buy organically or locally grown meats, they can be absurdly expensive. However, I found a sale on a beautiful chicken and decided to try out this recipe. It's another variation on one of Jamie Oliver's recipes, and he had yet to steer me wrong. This bird and his veggie friends made for a delicious dinner with plenty of meat left over for soup later in the week.


For the chicken, you need:

1 3.5lb chicken
1 med. onion, washed and cut in quarters
2 carrots, washed and roughly chopped
2 stalks celery, washed and roughly chopped
1/2 bulb of garlic, washed and broken apart
olive oil
salt and pepper
1 lemon, washed
1 small bunch of fresh herbs (such as thyme, rosemary, bay leaves or sage*)

[*if you are nursing, do not use the sage]

For the roasted veg, you need:

2.5 lbs potatoes, peeled and quartered
4 parsnips, peeled and quartered
4 carrots, peeled and quartered
1/2 bulb of garlic, peeled and halved
2 springs fresh rosemary
salt and pepper
olive oil


Take your chicken out of the refrigerator 30 minutes before it goes into the oven. Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Place the veg (for the roast chicken) in the center of a roasting pan, piled up, and drizzle with olive oil. Drizzle the chicken with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and rub into the bird. Prick the lemon a few times with a fork, microwave for 40 seconds (to bring out the flavor) and then stick it into the cavity of the bird along with the bunch of herbs. Place the chicken on top of the vegetables and put into the oven. Right away, reduce the temp to 400 degrees and cook for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Start preparing your veggies for roasting so that you can get them into the oven 45 minutes before the bird is done.

Speaking of those veggies, put a large pot of salted water on to boil. Once boiling, add the carrots and potatoes and boil for 5 minutes. Then, add the parsnips and boil for 4 minutes more. Drain and fluff up in the colander. Place in a single layer on a baking dish. Add garlic and rosemary. Drizzle with olive oil, salt, and pepper and toss to coat. When there are 45 minutes left on the chicken, put the veggies in the oven to roast. When time is up, take the bird out and let it sit for 15 minutes, cooking the veg in the oven for an additional 45 minutes.

Slice your chicken, plate up your roasted veg, and enjoy!

**You can also make a wonderful gravy out of the veggies and drippings that the chicken was resting on, or save and freeze them for stock later on**