French Roast Chicken and Mediterranean Vegetables in Wine

A very tasty & colourful recipe and an easy but impressive way of cooking Roast Chicken with MOST of the Vegetables & some of the Wine!! I have been known to cook this in my crockpot too; the vegetables need to be pre-cooked & the chicken browned if possible for the Crockpot recipe, but it works very well. All that you need to complete this meal, is maybe some Jacket Potatoes or even some of my Easy Low Fat Oven Roasted Peppered Potato Wedges and good company, and it's done! The Roast Vegetables stated in the ingredients, are my French Roast Vegetables with Hot Balsamic & Olive Oil Dressing, Roasted French Vegetables in Hot Balsamic and Olive Oil Dressing.

• Ready In: 2 hrs 30 mins
• Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 1  organic roasting chickens or 4  lbs chicken pieces or 6  chicken breasts, skin on and bone in
• 1  tablespoon olive oil
• 4  fluid ounces dry white wine
•  salt and black pepper
•  fresh thyme or  fresh rosemary
•  roasted  vegetables

Directions

1. Make a batch of French Roast Vegetables with Hot Balsamic & Olive Oil Dressing, (Recipe #195130) up beforehand - OR use your own roasted vegetable or Ratatouille recipe if you wish!
2. Preheat oven to 180C or 360°F.
3. Grease a sturdy roasing tin or tray with a little of the olive oil.
4. Brush the rest of the olive oil over the chicken or chicken breasts/pieces & season liberally with salt & freshly ground black pepper.
5. Place the fresh thyme or rosemary over the top of the chicken and roast in the oven for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, dependant on the size of your chicken and/or chicken pieces. Remove from the oven and drain any excess fat away.
6. Add the roasted vegetables & wine to the chicken, gently mix through or scatter around the sides of the whole chicken and turn up the oven to 220C or 450°F.
7. Put the chicken and vegetables back into the oven to roast for a further 15 to 25 minutes; the chicken should be just falling off the bone, golden brown and crispy and the vegetables should be heated through & charred slightly!
8. Serve with jacket potatoes or peppered potato wedges, Recipe #193370.
9. N.B.
10. I have cooked the vegetables alongside the chicken before, but I find that it takes up too much of the chicken fat & juices - great if you are wanting to cook a Chicken & Vegetable casserole, but in this dish I wanted the flavours to be independant of each other!