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Roasted Chicken on Veggies

January 4, 2008

Roasting chicken pieces on top of veggies is one of my repeat dinners. I could eat chicken every day of the week, and I think roasting is one of the nicest things you can do to a vegetable. In the summer I just make smaller quantities and roast in my toaster oven so I don’t heat up my kitchen.

The picture above has the chicken coated in a mustard sauce from Real Simple magazine, as I made it last night. The veggies are parsnips (leftovers from making soup), cipolline onions (they were delicious but no more wonderful than a roasted Vidalia), carnival squash (the very last items from my CSA), and fennel. The sauce was fine but didn’t really penetrate into the chicken and failed to add much flavor. My friend Merrie — and fellow cooking-more-for-her-family devotee — asked if I thought skinless, boneless chicken breasts would work OK with the Real Simple recipe, and I bet they would actually be an improvement over the bone-in chicken pieces I used.

Here’s my standard roasted chicken and vegetables recipe.

1 3-4 lb. chicken, in 8 pieces
8 c. vegetables, such as turnips, parsnips, carrots, onions, potatoes, Brussels sprouts, fennel, or squash
olive oil
salt & pepper to taste
seasoning for chicken

Preheat oven to 400° F. Prep, peel, slice, etc. your vegetables so they are all about the same size and will cook evenly. I like large chunks — a two-bite size. In a bowl, toss them with a drizzle of olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Spread in a single layer in the bottom of a roasting pan. (About 8 cups fills my roaster… use whatever quantity you need to fill the bottom of your pan.)

Rinse and trim chicken pieces, pat dry. Arrange on top of vegetables. Sprinkle with your choice of seasonings — I like to use the original Mrs. Dash. Roast for 40 minutes to an hour, especially checking the chicken breast for doneness. Veggies should be tender and caramelized.

Filed under: CSA,Poultry