Roast Chicken Dinner

OMG!!  This chicken dinner is so good!  And your house will smell wonderful after you make it!

This is the second time I've made this, and each time it has turned out fantastic.  I mixed together several recipes and this works really well.  You must try this.

Here's what you need:

• 1 (5-6 pound) chicken.  I think I'll try a larger bird next time - we don't have any leftovers!
• 1 stick of butter
• 1 tsp lemon pepper seasoning
• 1 tsp poultry seasoning (or sage if you don't have that)
• 1 large lemon
• 1 full head of garlic, peeled and separated
• Small potatoes
• baby carrots
• 2 onions
• The first time I made this I had broccoli on hand and I added it to the veggie mix.  You can add/subtract what works for you
• Olive oil
• Salt (kosher please)
• Pepper

First - take a picture of your sleeping cat, and then wake him up because you'd like to take a nap too, and if you can't take a nap then neither should he.



Second - gather some of your ingredients!



Please pretend you see 1 clove of freshly peeled garlic in the picture above too.

Now, melt your stick of butter and then mix in the lemon pepper and poultry seasonings.  Using a fine grater, grate the lemon peel into the butter mixture.  Run the garlic clove through a garlic press (or chop very finely) and add to butter mixture.  Put this in the fridge to chill and harden up.  It will take much less time than you think for this to occur.

Your butter mixture should look like this (before being chilled) - not very appealing, but tasty.



Time to prep your veggies.  This time I selected potatoes, carrots, garlic and onions, but in the past I have also added broccoli.  Use what you like!



I wash and slice up everything (peel the garlic and leave it whole) and then put all of your veggies into a plastic bag.   Drizzle in some olive oil - just enough to coat the veggies.  Mix the veggies around so that everything is covered.



Cover your pan with foil (it makes clean up so much easier - and I'm all about making things easier).  Rinse and dry the chicken, and make sure you take out any nasty foreign things that they put inside the chicken.  Put the chicken in the middle of your pan.

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.  Yes, that's right - 425.  Oh, and before you do that, check your oven to see if you need to lower a rack down a bit to fit the chicken in.

Take your butter mixture out of the fridge and work some of it between the breast and skin of the chicken with your fingers - it's messy but worth it.  Try not to break the skin when you do this.  Put some inside the chicken as well, and then "coat" the top of the chicken with the remaining bits of the butter mixture. 

Slice your lemon into about 4 chunks and squeeze some juice over the veggies in the bag.  Then put the lemon (peel and all) and onions inside the chicken.  Put as much in there as you can fit.

Take your veggie mixture out of your bag and spread your veggies around the chicken.  Sprinkle with kosher salt and pepper. 



Bake the chicken, just like this -not covered - for 1 1/2 hours.  I take it out half way through and stir the veggies around. 

You can test the chicken for doneness by making sure the juices run clear or with a thermometer.  After you pull it out of the oven, tent the entire thing for about 10 minutes and then slice and serve.



The veggies soak up the chicken juices and the onions and garlic flavor everything. 

The cooked whole garlic cloves are extra special treats - they get very soft and are super tasty.  Smear them on the potatoes or a piece of chicken for extra goodness.



Please try this sometime - it really is quite good.

Enjoy!