Garlic Butter Roast Chicken and Vegetables, Take 2

I was itching to use the new aluminum baking sheet, had a bag of new potatoes (including blue ones!), a whole chicken and no plan for what to make. So I reviewed the whole chicken recipes right here on my handy-dandy blog and once I came across a roast chicken with vegetable recipe, knew what to do about dinner.

This time, I opted to skip salting and peppering the chicken, squished a bunch of the garlic butter mixture under the skin, and didn't bother turning the chicken.

Garlic Butter Roast Chicken and Vegetables, Take 2

1 (5-lb.) whole chicken

1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 c butter, softened
1 tbsp plus 1 teaspoon minced garlic, divided
1 tbsp chopped fresh Italian parsley
2 lb new potatoes, halved lengthwise or quartered if large
4 medium carrots
1 tbsp butter, melted

Heat oven to 400°F.

Spray large rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray. Pat chicken dry; remove excess fat around cavity.

Combine softened butter, 1 tablespoon of the garlic and parsley in small bowl.

Spread butter mixture under skin of chicken and sling whatever remains on your fingers to outside of chicken. Place chicken, breast-side up, in center of baking sheet; cover loosely with foil.

Bake 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, toss potatoes and carrots with melted butter and remaining 1 teaspoon garlic, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in large bowl.

Remove foil; arrange vegetables around chicken.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until chicken is golden brown, internal temperature reaches 170°F. and vegetables are tender. Remove from oven. Cover loosely with foil; let stand 10 minutes before carving.

If you find the chicken is not quite done when you start carving the breast because you didn't use a thermometer, return the chicken to the baking sheet and roast another 10-15 minutes. Then cover and let stand an additional 10 minutes before carving.

The adaptations I made regarding greasing the bird and flipping it made a tremendous difference in ease. The butter under the skin yielded a very juicy, tasty, bird with crispy skin. While I missed the broccoflower, the quantity of potatoes was perfect. There was enough for each serving of chicken and they were delicious.

The carrots were exceptional in the flavor category and ranked as my favorite part of the dish. The blue potatoes tasted like...well, potatoes, no different than the others. Rodney preferred teh Yukon Gold's as they seemed to have sucked up more of the butter than the others.

It was annoying that I didn't use my meat thermometer. Had I done that rather than rely on time alone to determine when the bird was done, dinner would have been done in about 1.5 rather than 2.

All in all, I was happy with the results. Now we'll be able to see how the baking sheet cleans up.

Cost:

• chicken: $5.13 
• parsley: $0.45
• potatoes: $7.12

Total: $12.70 or $3.18 for each of four servings.  It really makes a difference if your chicken is on sale or not, dang.

Pin It