Simple Roast Chicken
Posted: | Categories: Recipes | Tags:dinner inspo
Simple Roast Chicken
Melissa Ben-Ishay
Savory Recipes
If you only keep one chicken recipe in your repertoire, let it be this one. It’s simple enough for a weeknight meal (aka the perfect dish to whip up while you work from home) and is packed with lemony, garlicky goodness. Since most of the ingredients are pantry items, it requires little prep but yields maximum flavor. The potatoes are almost the star of the show—they soak up all the flavorful juices and spices, creating an irresistible, starchy side.
Ingredients
- 4-5 lb. chicken
- 4 russet potatoes, peeled and diced
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 lemons
- 8 garlic cloves + a head of garlic (3 cloves minced, 5 cloves sliced)
- 1 heaping teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 heaping teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 heaping teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
- 1 teaspoon chopped parsley
- 3 1/2 teaspoons salt, divided, plus more to taste
- 1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper, divided
Directions
- Preheat oven to 425°F.
- Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel and remove giblets.
- In a small bowl, stir together olive oil, juice of one lemon, minced garlic, dried oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, sweet paprika, parsley, garlic powder, onion powder, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, and 1 1/2 teaspoon salt.
- Rub the paste all over the chicken, inside and out. Try and get it under the skin and inside the chicken where you can.
- Tuck the sliced garlic anywhere you can get it between the skin and the chicken.
- Cut the head of garlic in half. Stuff bird with half a lemon and half the head of garlic.
- Place the chicken in a roasting pan or on a sheet pan and surround with potatoes and chopped onion.
- Squeeze the juice of one lemon over the potatoes and drizzle with olive oil. Season with 1 teaspoon of salt.
- Smush the potatoes with your fingers and add the second half of the head of garlic in the pan with them and throw the squeezed lemon in with it.
- Season the potatoes with a teaspoon each of salt and pepper.
- Roast for an hour and 15 minutes or until the juices run clear. (Thank you, Ina Garten, for teaching me how to properly roast a chicken!)
- Let rest for 15-20 minutes before serving. Enjoy!
