Roast Chicken and Vegetables

Recipe adapted from The Pioneer Woman Roast Chicken.

Ingredients

• 1 whole Chicken, Rinsed And Patted Dry (3 - 4 pounds)
• 3/4 cups Butter, Softened
• 3 whole Lemons
• 4 sprigs Rosemary (or herbs of your choice, I used parsley and oregano)
• Salt And Pepper, to taste

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees (convection bake. If you're using a standard oven, you can do 425.)

Zest two of the lemons. Strip the leaves off of one of the rosemary sprigs and chop it up finely.

In a bowl, combine softened butter, lemon zest, rosemary, and salt and pepper to taste. Add any other spices you like such as onion and garlic powder, cayenne, etc.

Line a baking sheet with heavy duty aluminum foil and lay the patted-dry chicken on the foil, breast side up. Use your fingers to smear the butter mixture all over the chicken, under the skin, and inside the cavity.

Cut the lemons in half and squeeze the juice of one lemon all over the chicken. Place the six lemon halves (if they'll fit!) and the three remaining rosemary leaves into the cavity of the bird.

Place the chicken into the oven and roast it for 1 hour, 15 minutes or until done. Skin should be deep golden brown and juices should be sizzling. Sometimes I start the bird at 400 until it develops a nice brown crust, and then lower the temp to 350 for the remaining time.

Carve/cut up to your heart's content and dig in!

Roasted Vegetables

Tonight we had quite a variety of roasted vegetables. We used:

• 2 zucchini
• 3 beets
• 1 large sweet potato
• 3 carrots
• 1 head of broccoli
• half a red onion
• green beans
• shiitake mushrooms

Method

Cut the veggies into similar sized bites and throw into a glass casserole dish or baking sheet.

Drizzle a generous amount of olive oil all over everything. You can also use coconut oil or butter instead of olive oil. Sprinkle your favorite spices and herbs all over the veggies - garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, turmeric, etc. You pretty much can't go wrong with the spices. Just don't put too much salt! You can always add more salt, but can never take it away.

Toss all the veggies in the oil and spices. Make sure they are glistening in oil. If not, drizzle more all over the top and toss again.

Roast in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes. Take it out halfway through and toss the veggies again. They are done cooking when they are tender, to your liking.