Autumn Roast Chicken & Vegetables

A weekend away with friends needs only a few things: lovely seasonal weather, time to sleep in late, and plenty of good food. We began weekending together in Summer 2008, and while the weather is out of our hands, the food keeps getting better.

2 teaspoons took over the kitchen on Saturday night, for roast chicken and vegetables. Simple food. The ingredients and measurements are estimates -- adjust to suit your tastes and availability. Whole chicken would be nice practice for anyone attempting their first Thanksgiving turkey -- just remember that while the process is the same, the details will differ (specifically cooking time, and possibly your herbs).


Autumn Roast Chicken
One whole chicken was more than enough for six people (though admittedly we were not starving, thanks to plenty of snacks and a big late breakfast).

• 1 Chicken
• Fresh herbs: 5-15 springs of thyme, oregano, anything else growing in the garden
• 1 lemon
• 1 orange
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 1 onion
• Olive oil
  
• Salt and fresh pepper

Rinse and pat dry the chicken, and lay breast up. Stuff with halved or quartered lemon and orange, quartered onion, and peeled garlic cloves, and about half of your herbs. You won't eat this stuff, so don't worry about perfect cutting or peeling.

Twist the wings up and back, and tuck the tips under the body -- your bird will be posed as if basking in the sun. (If you really love crispy wings, skip this step.) Tie legs together with kitchen string (or perhaps dental floss, if you happen to be weekending some place without kitchen string -- we won't tell anyone).

Drizzle bird generously with olive oil, or brush with butter. Salt and pepper well, and tuck the rest of your herbs under the chicken's wings, between the legs, and around the outside. We also recommend rubbing the zest of the lemon and orange on the entire chicken for extra flavor. Surround with vegetables (next recipe).

Bake at 400 for about 1.5 hours. Chicken is done when legs wiggle easily and juices run clear.

Earthy Root Vegetables
For those unaware of what exactly constitutes as a root vegetable, here's the short of it: it's the edible part of a plant that grows underground. Root veggies are typically packed with carbohydrates and dietary fiber. They are also easy on the wallet and you can get a nice selection for a meal for under $6-7. Now, most people are aware of potatoes, carrots, garlic, onions, (and probably beets -- Raven is a beet fiend and has been cooking a ton of great recipes with them lately. See her recent beet soup recipe here.) but there a few other notable roots out there that you should have on your radar:

Rutabaga - Think of it as a cross between a turnip and a potato (don't forget to peel this one)
Turnip - A little on the blah side, but here's a tip: the smaller the turnip the sweeter the taste
Parsnips - My new favorite root addition this season. It's definitely carrot-esque, though it has more spice than sweet.

I have always loved the ease, flavor, and heartiness of root vegetables. You really can't mess up this recipe. Simply peel (you can leave the potatoes unpeeled if you'd like) and cut the veggies, drizzle (well, more like pour) a good coating of olive oil over the entire dish. Season with salt, pepper and fresh herbs to your liking. We used fresh thyme, rosemary, and oregano straight from the garden. Dried herbs will work as well, though for this dish I highly recommend splurging on the fresh stuff.

You can either cook the veggies in the same pan as the chicken, or, if you plan on pairing this with a different entree, you can cook them in a separate dish at 450 degrees until the veggies are soft (about an hour). Check on them from time to time, and if anything starts looking a little dry, just drizzle a little more olive oil on it.

Despite our initial fears of preparing a whole roast chicken (come on, buying a whole bird is a little intimidating) this meal turned out to be extremely simple in both preparation and necessary ingredients. The most time consuming part of this meal was peeling and cutting all of the vegetables, and waiting the 2 hours for the chicken to fully cook. But when there's enough beer, wine, cheese, rock band and good friends to distract you from the delicious smells that will most surely tantalize you for the next 2 hours, the time seems to fly by.