Roasted Chicken With Lemon and Fresh Herbs

Lennie's Note:

This results in exceptionally moist and tender chicken, with the bonus of being a complete meal. The veggies get bathed in the chicken juices, resulting in an easy, delicious one-pan dinner. It's low-maintenance once it's in the oven too; no basting, no fussing. You may want to add extra garlic cloves in the pan; after roasting they're sweet and delicious and taste great when squeezed out onto the chicken meat or potatoes. Do try the parsnip in this dish, rather than the more traditional carrot; the parsnip gets very sweet when roasting and goes so well with the chicken. This dish is easy enough for weeknights, spiffy enough for company!

• Total Time: 1 hrs 30 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs 10 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 4 medium red potatoes , unpeeled
• 2 sweet potatoes , peeled
• 2 large parsnips , peeled
• 3 small onions , peeled and quartered
• 6 garlic cloves , not peeled
• ¼ cup olive oil (approximate measure)
• 1 bunch fresh rosemary
• 1 bunch fresh thyme
• 2 lemons
• 1 roasting chicken , weighing approx 3 1/2 lbs
• paprika , for sprinkling
• coarse salt
• fresh ground black pepper , to taste

Directions:

1. Please note you won't use the entire bunches of both herbs, but you do need a fair amount.
2. Preheat oven to 400°F, have ready a shallow roasting pan.
3. Cut the potatoes, sweet potatoes and parsnips into chunks about one-inch square.
4. Place the potatoes, sweet potatoes, parsnips, two onions (peeled and quartered) and 4 of the garlic cloves in the shallow roasting pan; sprinkle generously with coarse (kosher) salt and freshly ground black pepper, then drizzle with a few teaspoons of olive oil; toss with your hands to coat all the veggies.
5. Nestle one sprig of fresh rosemary and one sprig of thyme into the veggies, then set pan aside.
6. On a cutting board, quarter one of the lemons (unpeeled) into wedges, slice the remaining 2 garlic cloves in half (leave skins on), then place the remaining onion quarters beside them, along with several sprigs of fresh rosemary and fresh thyme; sprinkle these items generously with salt and pepper.
7. Traditionally, you salt and pepper the inside of a chicken to be roasted; I find this very awkward to do so I salt and pepper what I'm going to stuff inside the bird, instead.
8. Now stuff all into the cavity of the chicken and then truss (tie up with kitchen string) the bird, if desired (it's not necessary); my grocery store sells birds already trussed so I just have to slip the tips of the drumsticks out from the under the string then tuck them back in when I'm done.
9. Place chicken atop the vegetables in the roasting pan.
10. Juice the remaining lemon; chop up some fresh rosemary and fresh thyme.
11. Rub the juice all over the chicken, then drizzle a couple of tablespoons of olive oil over the bird; sprinkle with the fresh herbs, then the paprika, then the salt and pepper.
12. Roast in preheated oven for 40 minutes, then reduce the heat to 375°F and continue to roast another 30 minutes or so, until the juices around the thigh run clear; a smaller bird may only take another 20 minutes, while a larger bird could require another 40 minutes.
13. When chicken is done, remove it to a cutting board and cover with a tent of foil to keep warm; let chicken sit for 15 minutes before carving.
14. While chicken is resting, give the veggies a good stir in the roasting pan (there will be lots of flavourful chicken juices in the pan) and return to oven.
15. After chicken has rested, carve bird, place on platter, remove veggies from oven, and serve.
16. This smells incredible as it roasts, so expect the folks at your dinner table to be extremely eager to dig in!

Reviews

[Cathee B.]

This had a nice flavor and yummy.

[ButterflyVioletta]

This is a fantastic recipe; very carefully written out and with great thought for complementary flavors! I slipped some lemon slices under the skin for extra opportunity for flavor. I also tipped the chicken to pour out the internal lemony juices onto the slices I carved. Yum! And so easy to have a full meal cooking at once!

[J-Lynn]

This was the first time I roasted a chicken in the oven; I usually use the crockpot. And this was way too much work, both prep and cleanup. I expected the flavor to be terrific and it just wasn't. The meat tasted like plain chicken, unless we soaked it in the pan juices, and even then it was only moderately flavorful. I'm afraid I will be sticking to the crockpot method.