Recipe - Organic Roast Chicken with Root Vegetables

Since I get all my meat through a local CSA program, I find myself frequently faced with a whole chicken. As a single person, a whole chicken can seem a bit daunting to cook and eat, but I subscribe to the "3-meal rule" - one chicken can be made into 3 meals. The first is roasted chicken, the second is leftover meat pulled from the bones (and whatever you choose to make from this), and the third is soup made from the chicken bones. When you break it down this way, you can get quite a lot of food from one chicken (and remember, the chicken bones/carcass can be wrapped in foil and frozen, if you don't have the time to make soup right away. Chicken broth also freezes well - I like to freeze mine in yogurt cups, to have handy 1-cup measurements of broth ready when needed.)

This recipe is for Meal #1. Feel free as always to experiment and change up seasonings and ingredients! You can try other root vegetables as well if desired. All ingredients in mine, except for the lemon, oil, and onion, were locally raised and organic!

Organic Roast Chicken with Root Vegetables

Ingredients:

• 1 4-5 lb organic (or naturally raised) chicken

Snipped rosemary from my bush

• 1 TB extra-virgin olive oil (I used flavored rosemary & lemon olive oils, but plain would work as well)

• 2 large sprigs or 1 TB fresh minced or snipped rosemary (or 2 tsp dried, crushed)

• 1 cup chicken broth, or 1/2 cup water + 1/2 cup white wine (or some other combination of these)

• 3-4 carrots, peeled and cut in 2" pieces

• 2 medium turnips, peeled & diced (I also used one rutabaga)

• 2 medium potatoes, peeled & diced

• 1 onion, peeled & cut in small wedges

• 2 halves fresh lemon peel (optional)

• Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Instructions:
1. In bottom of roasting pan, arrange all vegetables evenly.

Root veggies in roasting pan.

2. Rinse chicken inside and out, and drain well. Rub all over outside well with olive oil (flavored oils make a tasty variation!). Place on top of vegetables in roasting pan. (Tip: To avoid burned wing-tips, tuck under the drumsticks! See picture below for example.)

3. Sprinkle chicken all over with rosemary, pepper, and sea salt. Tuck the stripped rosemary sprigs, and lemon halves, if using, into cavity. (I just tried this as an experiment, since I used lemon-flavored olive oil on the outside. I had 2 lemon halves I had previously juiced for another purpose, so I just stuck both juiced halves of the peel inside for a subtle lemony flavor - it was great!)

Chicken ready for oven.

4. Gently pour broth or water/wine mixture into pan around edges. Add a sprinkle of sea salt over all.

5. Bake in 350-degree oven for 1-1 1/2 hours, until internal temperature with meat thermometer reaches 160-degrees (F). (Check a couple of times and if it starts getting brown too early, tent with foil until the last 10 minutes of cooking time. This recipe does NOT require basting.)

6. Remove from oven and let sit 10 minutes before serving.

Dinner's on!

7. Remember to feed the compost!  :-)