Whole Roasted Chicken & Vegetables
This is a Koller dinner classic that I’m so happy to share with you. Roasting a whole chicken ends up being the meal that just keeps giving. So far, my usual pattern has been:
The First Meal
A well-seasoned, crispy-skinned chicken roast paired with carrots, potatoes, and onions, cooked in the juices from the chicken. This is the recipe that I’m sharing below in this post.
The Leftover Meal
Anything we don’t finish the first day, I pull off the bone and keep for leftovers. However, usually instead of just heating up as leftovers themselves, I chop the chicken and try to make another dish with it, often including any leftover roasted veggies as well. Two go-to meals for us are Chicken Pot Pie and Chicken Tetrazzini.
The Chicken Stock
I always save my bones (along with veggie scraps) in a baggie in the freezer until I’m ready to slow simmer some chicken stock. As variable as my recipe for chicken stock is, there are some things I always include. I’m hoping to share a post for that soon!
And for the main event…
What you need
a whole chicken, around 3.5 to 4 lb
I always spatchcock (or butterfly) the chicken, and I’m not about re-inventing the wheel, so you can watch this video by Binging with Babish from 1:05 to 2:00.
olive oil
veggies: onions 🧅 , potatoes 🥔 , carrots 🥕
brown sugar
spices: salt, ground pepper, granulated garlic (or garlic powder), dried minced onion (or onion powder), dried oregano, crushed red pepper
any fresh herbs you may have - rosemary, oregano, tarragon, sage, thyme
What to do
1. Mix the spices together. I like to use a mason jar and make a large quantity of the spice mix to keep on hand.
The spice mix is extremely forgiving so don’t worry about exact measurements. The more important part is the ratio of the spices.
1/4 cup kosher salt
2 tbsp ground pepper
2 tbsp granulated garlic (or garlic powder)
2 tbsp dried minced onion (or onion powder)
2 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp crushed red pepper
2 tbsp light brown sugar
2. Place the spatchcocked chicken in a roasting pan, on a rack, if you have one. Coat the chicken with olive oil. Liberally season with spice mix, and then rub into the chicken. Set the chicken aside for ~30 min to bring it to room temperature, and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F meanwhile.
3. While the oven is preheating and the chicken is reaching room temperature, chop up all the vegetables into large-ish pieces, as pictured. Carrots get peeled and sliced into little bigger than 1-inch pieces. Potatoes get chopped to about the same size. And onions get quartered and then, halved — nice, large pieces that my husband can pick out, if he wants.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the chopped veggies, 2 tbsp olive oil, and 2 tbsp (or to taste) of the spice mix. Toss to mix well - make sure all the nooks and crannies are full of yummy spice.
4. Add the veggies to the roasting pan around the chicken. Place the chicken in the middle rack in the oven at 425 degrees F. Roast the chicken for 40 minutes, then lower the temperature to 375 degrees for the last 20 minutes. Use a meat thermometer to make sure the chicken is cooked through; you’ll want the thickest part of the thigh to get up to 165 degrees F and the juices will be running clear.
5. Let it rest for at least 10 minutes before carving and serving with the veggies.
