Roast Chicken with Root Vegetables and Broccoli – three meals in one!

PREPARACIÓN

1. Meal One.

2. Leftovers from this recipe are incredibly versatile, so I’d encourage you to make more vegetables than you need for dinner and use them on the quick left-over.

3. A medium chicken of 1.5-1.8kg should easily feed 3-4 people, a large chicken (2-2.5kg) 4-5 people, so use your judgement if you cannot find medium birds. I prefer smaller birds because they cook faster (See roast chicken time tool) and also you end up with more bones for stock as well as more drumsticks, which at home seem to be everyone’s favourite!

4. Preheat your oven to 190C and line a roasting tray with baking parchment which saves scrubbing the pan afterwards!

5. Sit the chicken on the lined baking tray and dress it with a little olive oil, squeeze a bit of lemon juice and grind some black pepper (and salt if using) onto it. Stuff the squeezed lemon cut in quarters, 2 garlic cloves and herbs inside the cavity.

6. While the chicken is cooking, peel carrots and parsnips and scrub the potatoes and sweet potatoes thoroughly but leave unpeeled. Chop them all in chunks of approx 2.5 cm. Peel and quarter the onions. Smash the rest of the garlic cloves with the side of a knife but leave the skin on.

7. AAdd the vegetables to the chicken tray, mixing well with the juices, 50 minutes (60 minutes if the vegetables were cold from the fridge) before the cooking time is up. Once you have the chicken out of the oven, poor some of the tray juices over the bird to keep it moist. Give the vegetables a good stir and poor the juices over the chicken again about 25 minutes before cooking is finished.

If preparing the chicken and vegetables ahead of time, you can keep the chicken well covered with foil and the vegetables well covered with water, in the fridge. Remember to drain the vegetables well before adding to the chicken when you are ready to cook them.

If making more vegetables to use as leftovers, or baking two chickens, use a separate tray for the root vegetables, mix a couple of spoonfuls of olive oil in and some ground black pepper. Half way through the cooking time, swap the chicken and vegetable trays around to get even cooking.

8.Once the cooking time is up, check that the chicken is cooked by inserting a skewer or sharp knife between the thigh and the breast. If the juices run clear (not pink) the bird is ready. If not, give them another 10 min and check again.
transfer the chicken to a carving board and let rest, covered with foil, for 15 min. This will give you time to finish roasting the vegetables – they are done when they start showing brown and golden patches as the natural sugars caramelise.
Serve with steamed broccoli.

INFORMATION

For 6 month old babies: Do not use chicken, use vegetables instead.

VARIANTS

Roast chicken with roasted summer vegetables
Same as above but using peppers, courgettes, tomatoes, aubergines and onions
Stuffed Roast Chicken.