Welcome back to Sunday Scratchups: Your weekly recipe from scratch around grocery sales and affordable ingredients. I often cook us up a simple roast chicken and vegetables dinner, because whole chickens are super affordable, super tasty, super easy to make, and super flexible in allowing you to make completely new meals with the leftovers.
When I do roast a whole chicken, though, I normally don’t measure anything or follow a specific recipe, but instead just throw different spices on the chicken according to what seems tasty this week. Please forgive my terrible food photography from several years back, but… Sometimes I’ll do a lemon-garlic chicken; sometimes I’ll do a spicy chile-lime chicken; sometimes I’ll roast up a Greek-ish chicken; sometimes it’ll be a 40 clove garlic chicken…
I also often throw potatoes in with a roast chicken because they take on such a nice flavor, are filling, and make for an easy built-in side, but sometimes will substitute or add in other veggies as well, such as today’s carrots, mushrooms, and onion.
Anyway, the main point here is this: This is not the definitive roast chicken and vegetables recipe, but this is instead how I made a particular (and tasty!) roast chicken and veggies dinner this week. Once you have the basic recipe down, it’s easy to change up the seasoning and/or the associated veggies according to what you have on hand or what your family enjoys.
After dinner, shred whatever chicken is left over to make something new: My 5 lb chicken ran just $3.80 on sale this weekend, then this chicken dinner fed our family of four with plenty left over. What can you make with leftover cooked chicken? Oh, just about anything, but here are a few ideas to get you thinking: Tortellini soup with chicken, or Caprese quiche with chicken & spinach, or easy cheesy chicken & rice, or BBQ chicken naan pizza, or rotisserie chicken soup, or cheesy chicken enchilada chili, or…
Simple Roast Chicken and Vegetables
Ingredients
– for the chicken
4-5 lb whole chicken
1 Tbsp olive oil
Kosher salt, to taste
Black pepper, to taste
1 tsp paprika
2 tsp rosemary (crush it up a little between your fingers)
1 tsp thyme
– for the veggies
3 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
2 lbs potatoes, diced
2 medium yellow onions, quartered
12 whole cloves of garlic, peeled
8 oz whole mushrooms
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp seasoned salt
Black pepper, to taste
1 tsp rosemary
Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees and remove chicken giblets, if present, then rinse chicken and pat it dry with a paper towel. Place chicken breast side up in a roasting pan. Mix together olive oil and spices, then rub the spice mixture all over the chicken. (Use your hands — it’s messy, but just wash them well afterwards!)
Surround your seasoned chicken with the vegetables and garlic. Drizzle veggies with olive oil and season them with seasoned salt, pepper, and rosemary, then toss to coat.
Roast chicken at 425 degrees for 20 minutes, then remove pan from oven and stir the veggies. Reduce heat to 375 degrees, return chicken to oven, and bake for another 40-60 minutes (or until a meat thermometer inserted into the thigh reads 165 degrees), stirring vegetables occasionally.
Remove chicken from the pan onto a cutting board and tent it with foil, then let it rest for 10-15 minutes before carving. (Stir veggies and return them to the oven while the chicken is resting, if they need a little extra time.)
Serve chicken with its associated vegetables on the side.
Roast Chicken is Comfort Food for the Soul
Sometimes it’s the simple things, you know? This savory and flavorful one pan roast chicken & veggies is a great choice for a weekend dinner on a chilly fall or winter’s day, with the added bonus of that leftover cooked chicken to help you throw together another easy weeknight dinner later in the week.
Roast chicken and vegetables is naturally gluten free and dairy free.
Simple Roast Chicken and Vegetables, printable recipe
- 4-5 lb whole chicken
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- Kosher salt, to taste
- Black pepper, to taste
- 1 tsp paprika
- 2 tsp rosemary (crush it up a little between your fingers)
- 1 tsp thyme
- 3 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
- 2 lbs potatoes, diced
- 2 medium yellow onions, quartered
- 12 whole cloves of garlic, peeled
- 8 oz whole mushrooms
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp seasoned salt
- Black pepper, to taste
- 1 tsp rosemary
-
Preheat oven to 425 degrees and remove chicken giblets, if present, then rinse chicken and pat it dry with a paper towel. Place chicken breast side up in a roasting pan.
-
Mix together olive oil and spices, then rub the spice mixture all over the chicken. (Use your hands -- it's messy, but just wash them well afterwards!)
-
Surround your seasoned chicken with the vegetables and garlic. Drizzle veggies with olive oil and season them with seasoned salt, pepper, and rosemary, then toss to coat.
-
Roast chicken at 425 degrees for 20 minutes, then remove pan from oven and stir the veggies. Reduce heat to 375 degrees, return chicken to oven, and bake for another 40-60 minutes (or until a meat thermometer inserted into the thigh reads 165 degrees), stirring vegetables occasionally.
-
Remove chicken from the pan onto a cutting board and tent it with foil, then let it rest for 10-15 minutes before carving. (Stir veggies and return them to the oven while the chicken is resting, if they need a little extra time.)
-
Serve chicken with its associated vegetables on the side.
This particular roast chicken and vegetables dinner is naturally gluten free and dairy free.
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stacey says
Tell me about a good roasting pan? Do you use a pan with a rack inside? when you cook this chicken I assume you cook it with the lid on, correct?
rachel says
No, I cooked it straight in the pan, no lid, sitting in my old beat up roasting pan without a rack. (It does have a rack that drops in, but I didn’t use it in this recipe.) I think you’re thinking of a roaster, which has a lid. Here’s a decent one http://amzn.to/2A4yQ28
Caitlin says
I’m lazy. I threw everything in the crockpot in the morning. I love how really versatile all your recipes are. This in the slow cooker, the sausage soup the other day in the pressure cooker… You really make dinner easy!
rachel says
Nice. How’d it turn out? On the rare occasions I do a whole chicken in the crockpot I usually brown it in the oven after because I like the skin better that way. 🙂
Caitlin says
We don’t eat the skin, so the rubbery skin doesn’t bother us and they are so tender. We’ve been doing whole chickens in the crockpot for a while now and I like it best when we shove the seasoning up under the skin (snipping the thigh skin with shears). Favorite is a blend of chili powder, garlic, garam masala, salt and oil.
Michelle says
Great recipe!