Savory Herb Roasted Chicken Recipe

Perfectly golden herbed roast chicken with delicous vegetables in a savory broth. A one pan meal to die for!

Damn you Prince Harry and Meghan Markle! Ever since you announced your engagement and said it happened over roasted chicken, the whole world wants to roast a chicken! Well, I haven't really checked in with the whole world, but I totally want to roast a chicken. So, game on. I am gonna roast a chicken today! And by today, I mean yesterday.

Part of my motivation is that it is football Sunday, and I want to set it and forget it. Ann is not slaving over a stove today. I plan on watching the Patriots game, which starts at 1:00pm. Once I reconcile football food with roasted chicken everything falls into place. The whole she-bang will go into the oven, I will watch the football game without a lot of fussing over food, fulfilling the goal. And when the game is over we will have a lovely meal. Game plan. Pun intended.

I research a bunch of "One Pan Roasted Chicken" recipes. And I have roasted about 7,000 chickens in my lifetime. I might be embellisihing, but not that much. Some of the recipes involved breaking down the chicken into parts so that everything cooks in 1 - 1.5 hours. Others roast the veggies independetly. Not a fan of either. I want to put a pan in the oven and have it cook in three hours, no sauce making, no side dishes. So I end up winging it. See what I did there?!! There are so many puns going on I can't even talk about it! "Game on", "fulfilling the goal", "game plan", "not a fan", "winging it", I am feeling clever. I will stop now. Forgive me.

The first thing I do is go shopping and buy a lovely organic roasting chicken at one of my favorite places, Roy's Market in Peterborough, NH. It's been around forever. The employees wear red jackets and carry your groceries out to your car. Old school. Love it! I have been a faithful customer forever. http://www.roysmarket.com

Once I get the chicken, sourced from Misty Knoll Farm in New Haven, VT (http://www.mistyknollfarms.com) -- it is time to get it in the oven. I do this after the Patriots win, so I can eat and then pretend I care about the Seattle Seahawks game, which starts at 8:30pm. They are my husband's favorite team. He grew up in Seattle, WA, which is a lovely part of this country. We have many friends and family there. And their QB, Russell Wilson, is dreamy, so I'm in. Our neighbors come over. They are the best. Dinner for four is happening.

First, the veggies go in the pan. Multi-color potatoes, carrots, celery, bell peppers, onions and mushrooms are chopped in a fairly uniform size. Oregano and thyme, garlic, salt and pepper go in the mix. Then 1 cup of white wine and 2 cups of chicken stock.

I then put the chicken directly on top with no rack. Olive oil, salt and pepper, Old Bay seasoning (I love this stuff). Dried herbs that I pulled from my garden at Thanksgiving (sage, thyme and oregano) are broken down and rubbed into the skin of this lovely bird. One lemon and 1/2 of an onion go in the cavity. Legs are tied together, because she is gonna act like a lady. Now she goes into the oven and will be ready before the Seahawks game starts at 8:30. But I already said that. Oh well.

The "before" photo, not yet in the oven..

The whole she-bang goes in the oven at 4:30pm. 350 degrees. Going for the slow roast. I am regretting I do not have a reliable thermometer system. My oven purports to have one, but it does not work, and I have had people come to fix it. They did not. So, I got one online, which was high tech, supposed to tell you on your phone when things were done. SO not me. It, too, does not work. When I find one that does, I will let you know or better yet, please tell me! So I go old-school. I use my watch and a "stick in" timer. It works.

Here it is, on the platter, all broken down and ready to serve!

This is probably the worst recipe of all time, because I don't know how big the chicken was, or how long I cooked it, and there are no measurements on anything. So sorry. Just prep the chicken well, put it in the oven and let it happen. You can do it. I believe in you. I checked on the chicken after an hour and a half, and then a few times until it was 160 degrees in the breast. I let it rest for 20 minutes once it was done and it was fab. We ate just in time for the beginning of the Seahawks game. The Seahawks won. Coincidence? No. And I got a "three thumbs up". Four, if I count. You just can't see me.

Today I had a lot of leftover veggies, but not a lot of chicken. I put it in a pan, freed the chicken meat from the bone and added a can of cannelini beans. Chicken stew. It was yummy.

Roast a chicken today. Sundays call for it.