Roast Chicken with Roasted Carrots and Potatoes

I haven't made a roast chicken in ages, but when I was shopping and saw the prices for beef, I decided it had to be chicken for dinner. We were having our friend Ryan come over for dinner. I couldn't believe the entire 4.5 lbs chicken got eaten in one go. I'm guessing this speaks for the flavor of the food.

So here goes:

A chicken. (I got an organic one. Usually I won't spring for organic, unless it's right after pay day, but this one was half off and cheaper than not organic, so I went for it.)
White wine
Butter
Broth cubes (I prefer Knorr)
Poultry fresh herbs (Thyme, Rosemary, Sage)
Carrots
Potatoes (I got small red ones)
Salt & Pepper

So first get your chicken out. (Sorry, not the best pics, my lovely husband was taking the pictures while I had chicken hands.)

Make sure you get the giblets, etc out.

Now be yucky, but make sure you get everything out of the cavity.

Rinse inside...

...and outside.

Pat it all dry, inside and outside. If it doesn't get fully dry, then it can be soggy, and the skin won't get nice and crispy. I use paper towels, so I can throw it away right afterwards.

Now put your pretty chicken on a plate and get it ready to season.

Season it liberally with salt and pepper, inside and outside. Haha, everything is inside and outside today.

Put butter inside the cavity, and where there are loose skin flaps you can stick some extra butter pieces too. This will help make your chicken very moist. Also rub some butter on the outside. I then just add some slices on top of it too.

I also stuffed some of all the herbs into  the cavity for extra flavor. I was able to just put the whole sprigs in. Delicious sage, thyme, and rosemary.

Now transfer your chicken to the roasting rack in your roasting pan.

Now it's time to get cracking on your carrots. I decided to go with the rustic flavor and not peel them. If you do this you need to really make sure you scrub them very well! I will do this at times because leaving the peel on helps them retain their structural integrity. Also as with most veggies and fruits, most of the vitamins are right under the skin and will be peeled away if you remove the skin.

Cut them up into bite sized pieces. I like to cut them a little diagonal.

I cut up some of the leftover herbs from the chicken and dumped them in with the carrots. I also added some salt and pepper.

Next I add some olive oil and mix it all together. The olive oil coats the carrots and helps the herbs stick.

Let's get the roasting pan ready for the carrots now. I add some white wine to the roasting pan. Normally I would add a bit more, but since I'm adding the carrots I don't want them to get too winey. So just add a little bit.

Then I also add two chicken broth cubes. One on each end. The wine and broth cubes add flavor to the chicken and help keeping it from drying out.

Next get your potatoes ready. I got a bag full of these little red potatoes.

Since they are so little I just cut them in half. I tossed them with some of the herbs, salt, pepper, and olive oil.

Add your carrots into the roasting pan.

Add the potatoes to your roasting pan. I had some extra butter from that stick of butter I used on the chicken so I distributed a few globs of it over the veggies.

Roast your chicken in a preheated oven for 1 hour and 20 minutes at 425 degrees fahrenheit. If you had a 5 to 6 pound chicken, you would roast it for 1 hour and a half.
So, there was slight problem. My husband got the chicken out of the oven for me, because I was clocked in doing paperwork for my job. He thoughtfully carved the chicken and got it all ready to serve. Only problem? He did this before I got a chance to take a picture of the beautiful chicken. So now you just get to see it's mangled corpse. You can still see a bit, how beautifully crispy the skin is. It was absolutely delicious!

Everything turned out so incredibly well! You could in theory roast the veggies separately. I've done this before, but when you roast them with the chicken, the veggies will absorb some of the delicious chicken juices and flavor.

Anyway, I sure hope you get a chance to try this out! It was really delicious and only takes like 15 minutes or so of prep time, and the rest is just waiting time while it roasts where you can go do whatever you feel like. :)