When I was young, my family sometimes had Sunday dinner together with my grandparents. Now that I have my own family, I’m trying to bring back this tradition. Typically, we used to have this “dinner” in the late afternoon. Although, I personally don’t have it on the table until 8:00 at night sometimes, it’s a nice way to reconnect with each other without the distractions of electronics and the outside world. there is something very comforting about sitting down to a nice meal at the table.
This week, our farm share blessed us with a myriad of root vegetables. I went out and bought an organic chicken and went to work. Behold, our delicious roast chicken!
Roast Chicken and Farm Share Vegetables
Here’s what you need:
1 whole chicken (I like organic if possible)
3 large carrots
1 medium turnip
4 medium potatoes
5 cloves of garlic
2 onions
1-2 Tbs salt
1 Tbs lemon pepper or black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
2 Tbs butter
Butcher’s twine
Prior to beginning food prep, allow chicken and butter to sit at room temperature for ½ hour. Pre-heat the oven to 475 degrees. Peel all root vegetables (carrots, potatoes, turnip) and cut into approximately 1 inch cubes. Peel and cut 1 onion into quarters. (I set these scraps and giblets from chicken aside to use later to make a bone broth for the first time ever! Here is the recipe I am going to use from www.ohlardy.com) Peel 2 cloves of garlic and cut in half. In a bowl, toss these ingredients with the 1/4 cup of olive oil. Peel remaining onion and garlic. Cut onion into halves or quarters depending on how large it is. Set all of these ingredients aside.
Mix salt and pepper in a small bowl and set aside. (This is so you don’t have to touch your spice containers with icky chicken hands!) Next, remove giblets and excess fat from chicken cavity. Rinse chicken inside and out with cool water. Generously rub salt and pepper mixture inside and out of chicken, including under skin on chicken breast. Then, rub outside of chicken with butter, including under skin. Sometimes, I find it helpful to melt the butter a little if it is still pretty hard. Pour vegetable and olive oil mixture into a roasting pan or large baking dish. Place chicken on top of vegetables. Into chicken cavity, stuff remaining garlic and onion.
Tie legs together with butcher’s twine. Tuck wings under chicken. Put into oven and turn oven down to 400 degrees. Bake for 1-1.5 hours until juices run clear when pierced (be sure to measure by thigh and not breast for this as the breast may cook faster). Insert a cooking thermometer into meatiest part of thigh where it should read 180 degrees.
As you can see in the picture, I added an apple inside the chicken this time. However, I like it better without it. It comes out a little more crispy and cooks more evenly. Happy eating!