Walk-Away Roast Chicken and Vegetables

Every once in awhile, I make a dish that everyone thinks is so delicious, that they eagerly ask me for the recipe. This particular very simple roast chicken invariably gets that response. It’s because it is really so yummy.  I often make it for my dinner guests, and their intense desire to acquire the recipe surprises and delights me.  I also get a kick out of giving the recipe, because I am very fond of its cute name:  “Walk-Away Chicken”. It’s called that because you make it,  and then leave it to roast for 75 minutes while you do something else. Set it and forget it.

It comes from a wonderful cookbook called “Bistro Cooking at Home” by Gordon Hammersley of the famed Hammersley’s Bistro in Boston. It is suggested that if you want to double the recipe, that you don’t buy a larger bird, but instead roast two smaller ones in the same pan, and double the rest of the ingredients. The vegetables roast along with the chicken, so the only other thing needed for a complete meal is maybe a nice crisp salad. The actual recipe calls for onions and potatoes to accompany the chicken. For a GAPS friendly/lower carb dish, onions, carrots, turnips, and zucchini can be substituted.

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons olive oil

2 Tablespoons Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon dried rosemary

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

1 lemon, cut in half

1 whole roasting chicken, 3-3 and a half pounds, rinsed inside and out and patted dry

1 large red onion cut into thick rounds

2 pounds of carrots, turnips and zucchini  clicked into chunks

half cup chicken broth

Method :

Heat the oven to 375 F. In a small bowl combine 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, mustard, thyme and rosemary, and season with a little salt and pepper. Squeeze one half of the lemon into the mixture; squeeze the other half into a small bowl. Reserve the juice as well as the squeezed lemon halves. Rub the herb mixture over the chicken and inside the cavity. Put the squeezed lemon halves in the cavity as well.

Put the onions and vegetables in the bottom of the roasting pan and toss with the remaining olive oil and some salt and pepper. Make room for the chicken in the pan and put it breast side up. Cook until the juices run clear when the thigh is pricked, about 75 minutes; a meat thermometer inserted into the thigh should register 165 to 170F.

Transfer the vegetables to a serving platter. Pour the juices from inside the chicken’s cavity into the roasting pan and transfer the chicken to a cutting board to rest.

Degrease the juices in the roasting pan. Set the pan over medium high heat. Add the reserved lemon juice and chicken broth. Bring to a boil stirring with a wooden spoon to scrape up the flavorful browned bits stuck to the pan. Carve the chicen or cut it into pieces and serve it with the vegetables, onions and some of the pan juices poured over all.

 

Healthy Home Economist Monday Mania Blog Carnival