Roasted Chicken With Lemon And Fresh Herbs

Total Time: 1 hr 30 mins Preparation Time: 20 mins Cook Time: 1 hr 10 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 4
• 4 medium red potatoes, unpeeled
• 2 sweet potatoes, peeled
• 2 large parsnips, peeled
• 3 small onions, peeled and quartered
• 6 garlic cloves, not peeled
• 1/4 cup olive oil (approximate measure)
• 1 bunch fresh rosemary
• 1 bunch fresh thyme
• 2 lemons
• 1 roasting chicken, weighing approx 3 1/2 lbs
• paprika, for sprinkling
• coarse salt
• fresh ground black pepper, to taste

Recipe

• 1 please note you won't use the entire bunches of both herbs, but you do need a fair amount.
• 2 preheat oven to 400°f, have ready a shallow roasting pan.
• 3 cut the potatoes, sweet potatoes and parsnips into chunks about one-inch square.
• 4 place the potatoes, sweet potatoes, parsnips, two onions (peeled and quartered) and 4 of the garlic cloves in the shallow roasting pan; sprinkle generously with coarse (kosher) salt and freshly ground black pepper, then drizzle with a few teaspoons of olive oil; toss with your hands to coat all the veggies.
• 5 nestle one sprig of fresh rosemary and one sprig of thyme into the veggies, then set pan aside.
• 6 on a cutting board, quarter one of the lemons (unpeeled) into wedges, slice the remaining 2 garlic cloves in half (leave skins on), then place the remaining onion quarters beside them, along with several sprigs of fresh rosemary and fresh thyme; sprinkle these items generously with salt and pepper.
• 7 traditionally, you salt and pepper the inside of a chicken to be roasted; i find this very awkward to do so i salt and pepper what i'm going to stuff inside the bird, instead.
• 8 now stuff all into the cavity of the chicken and then truss (tie up with kitchen string) the bird, if desired (it's not necessary); my grocery store sells birds already trussed so i just have to slip the tips of the drumsticks out from the under the string then tuck them back in when i'm done.
• 9 place chicken atop the vegetables in the roasting pan.
• 10 juice the remaining lemon; chop up some fresh rosemary and fresh thyme.
• 11 rub the juice all over the chicken, then drizzle a couple of tablespoons of olive oil over the bird; sprinkle with the fresh herbs, then the paprika, then the salt and pepper.
• 12 roast in preheated oven for 40 minutes, then reduce the heat to 375°f and continue to roast another 30 minutes or so, until the juices around the thigh run clear; a smaller bird may only take another 20 minutes, while a larger bird could require another 40 minutes.
• 13 when chicken is done, remove it to a cutting board and cover with a tent of foil to keep warm; let chicken sit for 15 minutes before carving.
• 14 while chicken is resting, give the veggies a good stir in the roasting pan (there will be lots of flavourful chicken juices in the pan) and return to oven.
• 15 after chicken has rested, carve bird, place on platter, remove veggies from oven, and serve.
• 16 this smells incredible as it roasts, so expect the folks at your dinner table to be extremely eager to dig in!