One-Pan Oven Roast Chicken and Vegetables

Roast chicken and vegetables. The ultimate Sunday Dinner for many in the United States. It is comfort food. Those two words bring to mind of home, families, and Sunday. All good feelings.

Roast chicken is a simple dish to prepare. There are many variations on seasonings, but just salt and pepper works just fine. This recipe is salt and pepper inside and out as well as fresh parsley and thyme in the cavity for extra flavor. You can use whatever seasoning combination takes your taste buds. I use white wine in this recipe; you can use broth instead if you don’t have wine handy.

I like to purchase all-natural organic chickens. There are a couple reasons I do that, but the main reason is size. The organic chickens tend to be smaller. What a chicken should look like in my mind not some Frankenstein chicken that is more the size of a turkey. You can still get a lot out of this little chicken. I usually get enough meat for a lunch’s worth of chicken salad and the carcass I can make broth from it in the slow cooker.

While this is the oven version of roast chicken, you can prepare a nice meal in the slow cooker. I love this recipe when things are crazy on the weekend. Just chop veg, rub the chicken, and put in slow cooker. In about 8 hours or so, fall off the bone chicken with tasty vegetables.

Roast chicken is a meal that demands everyone sit around the dinner table eating as a family. Gather your family and enjoy a meal together.

One-Pan Oven Roast Chicken and Vegetables Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 whole natural chicken (3 1/2 to 4 pounds), rinsed and patted dry
• Kosher salt and ground pepper
• Bunch thyme
• Bunch parsley
• 2 – 4 leeks with only white and light-green parts only) quartered
• 1 – 2 cups of baby carrots halved
• 1 pound small red potatoes, any large ones quartered
• Olive oil
• 1/2 cup dry white wine

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 450F.
• Rise and pat dry whole chicken
• Season generously chicken with salt and pepper inside and out.
• Stuff thyme and parsley in cavity.
• Cut vegetables then toss them in olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
• Place chicken in pan surrounding it with vegetables keeping potatoes at the far edges.
• Add white wine.
• Place in oven and roast for one hour or until the chicken is golden brown and juices run clear when pierced between breast and leg (an instant-read thermometer inserted in thickest part of a thigh, avoiding bone, should read 165 degrees).