For your next Sunday dinner, skip the rotisserie chicken from the supermarket. Nothing is more delicious than the perfect roasted chicken with juicy white meat and crisp, flavorful skin. This autumn bistro classic can be easily executed from your own home kitchen with little effort and just one pan! The key is roasting on high heat to keep the meat moist and maximum caramelization on the vegetables.
With the vegetables and potatoes tossed on the bottom of the same roasting pan as your chicken, this one dish meal features a high heat cooking technique that adds valuable flavor without the fat! Roast Chicken is home style classic and also a family favorite for all ages. Kids love how sweet the carrots get after roasting, and adults love how low in fat and high in flavor this dinner can be!
Leftovers from this meal are perfect for lunch the next day. Take the left over chicken meat, chop, then add mayonnaise, celery, salt and pepper for a tasty chicken salad. The left over vegetables are delicious chopped up into bite size pieces, heated up in chicken or vegetable broth for a healthy vegetable soup. Snip in fresh herbs to make this soup really delicious.
Another option for the leftovers is taking the leftover chicken and vegetable, chop into bite size pieces and mix with one can of cream of chicken soup and one 8 ounce low fat sour cream container. Place in a baking pan, top with boxed stuffing and bake in the oven at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. This creates a creamy and crunchy chicken casserole.
Serves 4-6
1 Whole Fryer or Roasting Chicken, organic free-range preferred
1 Package each of Thyme, Rosemary and Sage
1 teaspoon minced garlic
4 thin slices of lemon
Fresh Ground Pepper
6 Red Skinned Potato, sliced into halves
1 Onion, peeled and quartered
1 Carrot, peeled and sliced into 4 pieces
Preheat oven to 425 degrees
Rinse chicken inside and out and pat completely dry.
In small bowl, combine one tablespoon of olive oil, one teaspoon salt and pepper, garlic and one sprig of each herb that has been rinsed, stripped from the stem, and roughly chopped. Put half of this herb mixture under the skin of each breast. Put two slices of lemon under each breast. Sprinkle salt and pepper onto the skin of the chicken and inside the cavity.
Put potatoes, onions, carrots in a large mixing bowl. Toss with one tablespoon of olive oil, one tablespoon of chopped rosemary and one teaspoon of salt and pepper. Pour vegetable mixture around chicken in roasting pan.
Bake chicken on 425 degrees for 30 minutes, then 30 minutes at 375 degrees. Once chicken is baked, remove from oven and let rest for 10 minutes before cutting into chicken. This resting time allows for juicy chicken meat.
